I felt very optimistic before this run. Training was going well and even though I had a very shallow base, I thought I might be able to PR. I knew my training paces were slower than last year, but I tried to think positive. Gun goes off and we're winding through downtown. It is sunny and warm and everything feels good. I'm a little winded, but I had cooled down a tad waiting for the start. 1st mile - 8:15 - Pleased with this pace. Last year I went out at a 7:45 and died at mile 3. Thought this would be a good pace to keep. Stayed steady though mile 3. Got gaspy here. Another girl came up and asked if I was running 8 minute miles. I said I was trying too and we ran together at 8:00 pace until mile 4.5. I knew the big hill at McDaniel Avenue was coming up and I wanted to recover before going up. I let my friend go and recovered. Then I started the climb. I swear, this felt so much harder than last year. I was gasping, my glasses were fogging, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I made the mistake of looking at my Garmin. It said my HR was in Zone 6. I didn't think I had a Zone 6!!! I freaked and walked for 1 minute to try to catch my breath. Then I jogged up the rest of the hill. I was very angry with myself for walking. There is NO WALKING IN A 10K!!!!!!! So I tried to make amends by running a fast final .75. I started passing people. It was a slight downhill, and I was running fast (for me, 7:10) but then the road turned up and I slowed down. Two girls passed me that I had passed earlier. I tried to put up a fight, but no go. I crossed the line at 52:12 according to my Garmin. CHip time was 51:57.

Train more. I followed my coach's plan because I don't want to injure myself again. When I first finished, I was very disappointed with my time. But now that I've eaten and I've seen the chip time, I don't feel as bad. 51:57 vs 51:26 last year. Last year, I trained for a half mary in January and had lots of miles under my belt. This year, I started running again in January after not running at all for three months to heal a pulled hip flexor. Someday I WILL RUN A SUB 50 MINUTE 10K. I had hoped today would be the day, but it wasn't meant to be. Looking at my stats from my Garmin, I really think I put out a lot of effort in this race. My average HR was 171, max 180. I just don't have the fitness or talent to be super fast, yet.

Jogged back to my car


My natural ability and not that big of a base


Right now, I don't know if I'll do this one next year. It is so tough with all the hills. Each year, it seems to get harder instead of easier.