My loyal readers (or reader, i.e. Sarah!) have requested a race report, which I would have done yesterday, had I not spent yesterday afternoon at Jeju Sauna in Duluth, which pretty much rendered me comatose for the next 24 hours. But that's another post...
I was super nervous on Saturday morning. I'm a racing veteran, but I've never really embraced the "racing" part of running. I enjoy being with friends and taking in the course, but I've never really run a race with a specific time goal in mind. The nerves were not helped by the fact that it was freezing cold, and we had to park a mile or so from the start line and were running a bit late (my fault, of course) and had to still pick up numbers and hit the potties (okay, I did; Tim was fine).
All this resulted in us being a bit further back than I would've liked, but I was just happy we made it to the start line in time (throughout my mini moments of panic, Tim was uber-calm and assured me that everything would be fine, which of course, it was).
As is normally the case with these races, the first mile was pretty slow. Just under 10:00 pace, and we were about 40 seconds off the actual gun time. After that, we fell into a rhythm pretty easily (with the exception of this super annoying loud guy who would NOT SHUT UP. Dude, if you're going to talk so loudly that people within a half mile radius can hear your every word, you could at least be amusing). Miles two and three were at 8:54 and 8:48, and I was really happy with the pace we were maintaining.
Tim helped us pick up the pace around mile four, and I started to feel the intensity of run, whereas the first part of the race felt like a pretty comfortable jog. We ran mile four at 8:37 pace and mile five at 8:14. Tim says he started to hurt around mile four, but he never let on. He was there by my side, and I can't say enough for what that did for my confidence and state of mind.
I started to get a bit freaked out at the end of mile five, mostly because I knew we were cutting it close and also because I'd never sustained that kind of pace before (my fastest tempo run was four miles at 9:00, and I was seriously hurting). It was also disconcerting because we passed the finish line and still had to run up the road and loop back, and it felt like an eternity before the turn around--which was preceded by the world's smallest but most evil hill, which almost knocked the wind out of me and caused me to slow my pace just slightly.
After the turnaround, there was another small hill, which Tim sprinted up in front of me (hoping to push the pace) and then he yelled "go for it," and I ran as fast and hard as I could for another half mile to the finish (my Garmin says I hit 6:01 pace at one point, but I didn't have the energy to look at the time). My lungs were in so much pain that I was convinced I was going to collapse at the finish line and need oxygen. Considering that I have asthma, and apparently, the feeling you get from sprinting all-out at a finish is the same as the onset of an asthma attack, it was a pretty scary. Luckily, I recovered almost immediately.
When I crossed the finish line, the time was 55:07, so I was slighly disappointed, as I'm 99.9% sure that the official time will be clock time and not elapsed time (my elapsed time was 54:27), and it sucks to have worked so hard and come so close to miss the Peachtree cut-off by seven seconds. Especially since I could've easily gotten those seven seconds back by being closer to the front at the start.
And then I came to my senses. My goal was to run a sub 55:00 10Kand I DID! And in the process, shaved nearly seven minutes off my 10K PR. The secondary goal was a Peachtree chip, which I still have time to do, especially now that I know I can run that pace. Tim and I are thinking about doing the Silver Comet Trail 10K on March 14 (if I can get out of a TNT GTS I'm supposed to coordinate that day). We were going to do the Shamrock 'n' Roll on March 15, but Peachtree registration is online for the first time and starts at 7:00 am that morning, and I'm not sure if or how the League can coordinate results with the Atlanta Track Club AND guarantee Peachtree entry. Which kind of blows, because the race is right around the corner AND gives me a meeting credit--and a 10K goes by a lot faster than a Junior League of Atlanta general membership meeting.
So, I consider it a successful trial run and am looking forward to trying one more 10K this spring to see if I can get a Peachtree chip. But right now, I need to focus on half marathon training, as I have the ING coming up on March 29 and just found out I can run Country Music with my team.
All in all, it was a great way to kick off the 2009 running season, and I'm looking forward to what my coach has planned for me next!
I was super nervous on Saturday morning. I'm a racing veteran, but I've never really embraced the "racing" part of running. I enjoy being with friends and taking in the course, but I've never really run a race with a specific time goal in mind. The nerves were not helped by the fact that it was freezing cold, and we had to park a mile or so from the start line and were running a bit late (my fault, of course) and had to still pick up numbers and hit the potties (okay, I did; Tim was fine).
All this resulted in us being a bit further back than I would've liked, but I was just happy we made it to the start line in time (throughout my mini moments of panic, Tim was uber-calm and assured me that everything would be fine, which of course, it was).
As is normally the case with these races, the first mile was pretty slow. Just under 10:00 pace, and we were about 40 seconds off the actual gun time. After that, we fell into a rhythm pretty easily (with the exception of this super annoying loud guy who would NOT SHUT UP. Dude, if you're going to talk so loudly that people within a half mile radius can hear your every word, you could at least be amusing). Miles two and three were at 8:54 and 8:48, and I was really happy with the pace we were maintaining.
Tim helped us pick up the pace around mile four, and I started to feel the intensity of run, whereas the first part of the race felt like a pretty comfortable jog. We ran mile four at 8:37 pace and mile five at 8:14. Tim says he started to hurt around mile four, but he never let on. He was there by my side, and I can't say enough for what that did for my confidence and state of mind.
I started to get a bit freaked out at the end of mile five, mostly because I knew we were cutting it close and also because I'd never sustained that kind of pace before (my fastest tempo run was four miles at 9:00, and I was seriously hurting). It was also disconcerting because we passed the finish line and still had to run up the road and loop back, and it felt like an eternity before the turn around--which was preceded by the world's smallest but most evil hill, which almost knocked the wind out of me and caused me to slow my pace just slightly.
After the turnaround, there was another small hill, which Tim sprinted up in front of me (hoping to push the pace) and then he yelled "go for it," and I ran as fast and hard as I could for another half mile to the finish (my Garmin says I hit 6:01 pace at one point, but I didn't have the energy to look at the time). My lungs were in so much pain that I was convinced I was going to collapse at the finish line and need oxygen. Considering that I have asthma, and apparently, the feeling you get from sprinting all-out at a finish is the same as the onset of an asthma attack, it was a pretty scary. Luckily, I recovered almost immediately.
When I crossed the finish line, the time was 55:07, so I was slighly disappointed, as I'm 99.9% sure that the official time will be clock time and not elapsed time (my elapsed time was 54:27), and it sucks to have worked so hard and come so close to miss the Peachtree cut-off by seven seconds. Especially since I could've easily gotten those seven seconds back by being closer to the front at the start.
And then I came to my senses. My goal was to run a sub 55:00 10Kand I DID! And in the process, shaved nearly seven minutes off my 10K PR. The secondary goal was a Peachtree chip, which I still have time to do, especially now that I know I can run that pace. Tim and I are thinking about doing the Silver Comet Trail 10K on March 14 (if I can get out of a TNT GTS I'm supposed to coordinate that day). We were going to do the Shamrock 'n' Roll on March 15, but Peachtree registration is online for the first time and starts at 7:00 am that morning, and I'm not sure if or how the League can coordinate results with the Atlanta Track Club AND guarantee Peachtree entry. Which kind of blows, because the race is right around the corner AND gives me a meeting credit--and a 10K goes by a lot faster than a Junior League of Atlanta general membership meeting.
So, I consider it a successful trial run and am looking forward to trying one more 10K this spring to see if I can get a Peachtree chip. But right now, I need to focus on half marathon training, as I have the ING coming up on March 29 and just found out I can run Country Music with my team.
All in all, it was a great way to kick off the 2009 running season, and I'm looking forward to what my coach has planned for me next!
1 comment:
Awesome job Laura!! You really pushed it hard and you got your PR!!
I know Shamrock sounds better, but honestly, I think the Silver Comet race will set you up better for a chip since Shamrock is a little hilly.
In the past, they've had the official results ready the same day for Peachtree applications - here are the details, it looks like you can submit your time and they'll verify - http://www.atlantatrackclub.org/peachtree/Time_Group_Placement.htm
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