I had really hoped that I could run under 54 minutes for this race. It's a flat, fast course, but having a stupid cold, being super sore still from Body Pump, and running a hill workout the day before didn't really contribute to that light, bouncy, fast feeling I had at last week's 5k. Oh well. At least the weather was better. And I knew that it would be easy for me to run faster than the 10k I did last year in Vicksburg (57:xx).

For the start, I tried not to get too far back, but still had to negotiate clumps of slower folks before settling in. This time, I wore a watch. The plan was to run a steady, strong feeling pace for the first half and then pick it up for the second half. When I hit the first mile in 8:50ish, I wasn't too pleased. But since I was dealing with a cough and congestion, it didn't seem like a good idea to push, so I stayed settled in and figured I would hit the halfway somewhere around 28 minutes. In the meantime, I watched as a couple of women trotted past me.

I hit the lap on my watch at the turnaround and was rather pleased to see 27:20...just 20 seconds off my original goal of 27 flat. Now, I just wanted to see if I could pick up the pace a bit and hang on for the next 3.1 miles. I started passing people, including the women who passed me on the first half. It started to get hard, but I just forced myself to relax and not break pace. The final 2 tenths to the finish line were endless and I felt like I was running in molasses. None of that snap from last week. As I stopped my watch, I glanced at the clock and was pretty pleased with the 54:24 it showed.

We stuck around for the awards. Third in my age group. Woo hoo!

Such a big negative split tells me I probably could have run that first half faster and come closer to my original goal of coming in under 54 minutes. Oh well. I'm still figuring out this racing fast stuff.

It must have gotten colder. I put on all of my warmup clothes and ran a very slow 1+-mile warm-down.


Cough. Lingering soreness from strength workout. Hill workout the day before.