Tulip Festival Road Race - Run10k

Started the run okay and, like clockwork, my friend the side stitch settled in at the five-minute mark. So stupid. This is the third run IN A ROW that it's happened to me. I simply have no clue what's bringing it on. At any rate, I ran the first "mile" which I think was measured pretty short in 8:52. I decided that was a little quick for the first half so I settled into a slower pace. At mile 2 I was at 18:43 so I must've done something right with kicking my pace down. Usually that's a struggle for me, especially if I have people to chase. I clicked my watch at the "10K 5 mile" mark at 29:34 and did my first 5K loop in like 30:23 or something like that. After I hit the 5K mark my side-stitch FINALLY went away, so I decided it was time to step it up a notch or two. Hit the 4 mile mark at 38:36 [SOME of my friends will have been done by now... jerks :)] and started to pass a guy at 42:30. I remember the exact time because he asked me. And then after I told him, he picked it up! I was like "Hey you can't just pick it up like that!" and we both had a good laugh. I caught back up to him a couple more times but then once he heard me approaching he would step it up again. I knew I had him when he started walking after the 5 mile mark. I clocked that at 47:40. Huffed and puffed the last 1.2 and about passed out because I was trying so hard to catch the few people ahead of me. If I had another fifty yards I would have had 'em! Ah well. I think maybe 5 people finished after me. Everyone needs a slice of humble pie every once in a while.

Not really anything since I set a new PR! I got mixed up! I thought my PR was 58:47 but I got that confused with my 5K time! GRR! This is my second-longest run in 2008 so I don't think that's a bad time, all things considered. This came at the end of a recovery week so that helped. What didn't help was the fact that I couldn't fall asleep until 12:30AM, then I was wide awake at 3:30 and never did fall back asleep so I got up at 4:15 and got everything ready. I had to leave at 4:45 so it wasn't a huge deal.

Met the rest of John's entourage and then recapped my race. I told them all I PR'd because I thought I did but I didn't so I'm a big fat liar. Checked out the finishing times with John and then waited around for the awards ceremony.


PF. At the time of writing this, before entering in today's mileage I'm at 64 miles running in 2008 [actually, since Nov. 2007] so to come within 13 seconds of a PR I'm content with where I'm at right now.


I give this race a 4 because I didn't like how the OA winners got AG awards too. Most races I've seen have been one or the other. Also the post-race refreshments left something to be desired. By the time I was done there was plenty of apple juice to drink but only a handful of bananas. They really didn't have a huge number of participants, especially for the 10K, so maybe it was better beforehand. The volunteers and water stations were plenty and the course was through a small town where probably everyone who was awake was either at the square or in the race, so traffic was not an issue and the run was pretty pleasant.