Cajun Cup 10K - Run10k

Lined up just in front of the "Over 50 Minutes" pace sign, which was just a little faster than what I was shooting for. Not completely arbitrarily, I've been training with paces base on a four-hour marathon, which McMillan equates to a 51-minute 10K (8:13 pace), so that was my target time.

First couple miles I just kind of went with the crowd. Good thing about these local races is that you can pick out people who you know and and are familiar with their typical paces. Felt a little fast but OK, so I stuck with it down Johnston, through the subdivision, and onto South College.
Mile 1: 8:00
Mile 2: 8:02
Mile 3: 8:11

At this point we're out in the direct sunlight and things get warm quickly. Temps were in the low 40s when we left the house so I decided on a long-sleeved UnderArmor, but now the temps were in the 60s and it was too warm. Some of my rabbits began to fade, even saw some of the diehard runners stop to walk. Started to hurt so I slowed my pace down a little.
Mile 4: 8:12
Mile 5: 8:12

Mile 6 was hurting bad, plus my Garmin screwed up and dropped a tenth of a mile. Going by feel anyway, but I had to remember to hit the lap button at the mile marker. Picked it up a little on Jefferson Street, was over 49 minutes at Mile 6, which made a sub-50 out of reach so I didn't push too hard...

Mile 6: 8:19
Last .2: 7:35 pace(1:36)

Not much. I could certainly stand to be lighter. Just getting my mileage back up after a fifteen-month layoff, so I'm right where I expected to be. Verifies that my training paces are OK as I continue to train for my goal half marathon in January.

Today's pace was about 1:30 per mile faster than last year,0:45 slower than my 10K PR here two years ago.

Water. walked around, waited for Angel to finish, got food to eat.


Too early in the training cycle, non-goal race, too little taper, big belly.


Always a great event, this is the largest local running event, good turnout with over 800 participants. Good course, great weather, excellent party afterward with jambalaya, free beer, and good musical entertainment.

Seemed to be a lack of volunteers this year as a couple of water stations didn't have enough folks to be handing out the cups. Kind of a pain to have to grab one off the table while trying to maintain pace.