Jingle All The Way 10K - Run10k


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Washington, DC, Washington, D.C.
United States
40F / 4C
Sunny
Total Time = 47m 59s
Overall Rank = 392/1371M
Age Group = 40-44M
Age Group Rank = 40/143
Pre-race routine:

2 pieces of toast with almond butter and coffee for breakfast, together with large glass of water.
Event warmup:

Half mile jog to Metro, then 1 mile jog from Smithsonian Station to race site. Got there a little late so no time for stretches, strides, or even to pee.
Run
  • 47m 59s
  • 6.21 miles
  • 07m 44s  min/mile
Comments:

Huh? A PR by almost a minute and a half!

There were a lot more people than last year, so that first mile reflects the insane amount of dodging I had to do and a shuffling start. However I felt pretty relaxed. This wasn't supposed to be a big event for me, and I left the Garmin at home and just took my basic race watch. We had a bit of a headwind on the way out, but that meant I was really looking forward to the tailwind coming home. I settled in during mile 3 once the traffic had also settled down a bit, and although I noticed that I'd picked up the pace it was at this point that I thought I might have a good event in me, since I was feeling very comfortable and loose. But I wasn't taking anything for granted; during the recovery period my long runs have all started well and then ended. . .less well. Having done some endless loops of Haine's point for the marathon training I realized that one of the reasons why my race fell apart last year during mile 5 is that there's a subtle uphill grade there, so I made sure to put in more of an effort this year: the time still dropped, but not as much. Then I kicked it in to high gear for the last part (and the last 0.2 is about as fast as I would typically do a good Econ 400 at the track).
What would you do differently?:

I'm not sure since I never expected to do this well.
Post race
Warm down:

1 mile jog to Foggy Bottom station, then half mile run from station to home.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

I wasn't pushing really hard because I didn't no how well I had recovered from doing the marathon. Because this was only ever meant to be a fun run I had a couple of hard workouts this week and up until yesterday my legs felt completely trashed.

Event comments:

I'm really pleased because this is exactly 4 weeks after the Richmond Marathon and it indicates that the recovery has gone pretty well. And this was never intended to be anything less than a fun run. Good lesson about the benefits of being really relaxed for a race.

Or maybe the motivational secret is in not being able to pee before the race. Concentrates the mind wonderfully on that finish line!




Last updated: 2008-12-14 12:00 AM
Running
00:47:59 | 06.21 miles | 07m 44s  min/mile
Age Group: 40/143
Overall: 392/1371M
Performance: Good
Splits: 8:03; 7:58; 7:45; 7:39; 7:48; 7:22; 1:28 5K split:: 25:36
Course: The standard Haines Point course.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 4