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Comments: I had set a goal of running somewhere b/t an 8:15 pace and an 8:30 pace to see where my progress was for my OBX marathon training. I had been focusing on long, slow runs and various speed workouts at the track so I had no real idea how I would do. And Tony seemed to doubt my ability to maintain an 8:30 pace over 10 miles so I used that as some extra motivation. ;-) Since I was nice and warmed up, my plan was to keep the first mile under 9 min. and my HR from zooming in order to settle into my real race pace. The first mile went according to plan as I picked my way through the crowd. As the miles went by, I settled into a nice pace and had plenty of room to run. By mile 4, I was doing 8:13-8:15 miles and feeling very comfortable. I drank a sip or two of water at every station along with 2 gels around mile 3.5 and 7.5. Close to mile 8, Tony ran up behind me and said I was running a good race. He had spotted me about a mile ago and had been chasing me down. I said thanks and kept running. His presence gave me a little boost just as I was starting to tire a bit so I tried hard to stay focused for the last 2 miles. The next mile went fairly well but the last mile was tough with a few minor rollers going up and down the highway on the way back to the Pentagon parking lot. The final quarter mile was a short downhill then I rounded the corner for a short sprint to the finish. I was so happy. I had run a great race and thinking maybe a BQ time was possible sometime in my future if I kept working hard. Just as I hit the stop button on my Garmin, Tony said hey great race. He had just finished as well. My official time was 13 sec. faster than him but we agreed that we both ran a 1:24 10 miler. He had a great race as well. My watch had me at an 8:21 pace but also .11 miles over the 10 mile course. Either way, I was happy. I ran hard but not stressed even though my HR stayed b/t 165-173 for the race. What would you do differently?: Not a thing. It was a great race. I need to remember to get a nice warm-up in before big races.  Post race
Warm down: Snaked through the long finish chute, grabbed a water and banana then walked back over to 27 to jog back to the car. We walked the last mile. What limited your ability to perform faster: Nothing - my watch said I was a little faster but I was thrilled w/ my race, pace and comfort level. Event comments: Good race - the crowds were handled well and I had plenty of room to run. Last updated: 2009-04-21 12:00 AM
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United States
Army
70F / 21C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 1069/9566
Age Group = F35-39
Age Group Rank = 178/1762
Tony and I met Tracy from our BT mentor group and her husband, Doug for dinner in Old Town Alexandria. It was nice to meet them and sit around talking about triathlons and our kids.
Tony was told to run 2 miles before the race and 2 miles after by his running coach so I went along with him figuring it would be a good warmup/cooldown. We parked in Rosslyn and decided to run to the start. It was a little further than we thought. So after 3 and we got to our corral 3 min. before the race started. We were both laughing about cutting it so close. But it was enough time to recover but not so long that I cooled off. It ended up being a perfect warm-up and I was ready to start racing at the cannon.