Thanksgiving Day 4 mile run

My first race report, it isn't a tri report yet but we'll get there. I have been trainging since November 1st and this race fit really nice as a barameter of sorts. My background in HS was football, basketball, track. College would be the Rowing team (crew). With track I was a hurdler 110 HH and 300 LH plus pole vault. Distance running was not for me. No swimming background as far as teams go, I was a lifeguard and at one point could swim 1 mile, but I was like 17. I have competed in one other race in May 2002 I ran a 10K (54:45) but really didn't train with any specific goal or regime. Run as fast and as long as I could and try to beat the last time I did. This time I have trained 1 month with some thought put into it which provided a much better experience. Part of the reason for this was that I partially tore my meniscus tendon in Sept with a severely sprained knee playing basketball. I had to put some thought into training to heal my knee. My longest run while training in Nov was about 3.5 miles in about 40 minutes. It's in my log but I was pretty confident I could do the distance within a decent time.

A little background on the day before. I get to work and my neighbor who is running in the race with me calls and pulls out. He said he had a blister and couldn't run. Then I see the forcast is for 70% rain and temps in the 30's for the morning. My wife called around 5pm and said we had no power at home and it would be several hours for them to get it back on. One my way home from work, I decided to pre-register for the race, that way no matter what happens I was going to do this. I had already started thinking about not running, there was just too much going on. That night one of my daughters ( twins - turned one on Wednesday) decided she wasn't tired which left me up until 1am. So much for the good night sleep the day before the race.

Race day: Get up at 7am (race time is 8:30) and eat a light breakfast and look outside. A light rain but no too bad. I head on over to the University. When I get there the rain/mist had stopped and the temps at race time were 40 degrees. It was turning out pretty nice. I warmed up with some short runs at various speeds and did some stretching about 15-20 minutes before hand. I kind of knew what to expect but my neighbor bailed and the last race I ran with my father in law. Being on my own and not knowing the course made just a wee bit nervous.

My goals were to:
1)start
2)finish
3)have fun
4)35-40 minutes

I started and ran the first mile not feeling comfortable, I didn't want to go out too fast and figured anything around 10 minutes would be fine with me. 8:44.....not too bad except I didn't feel as loose as I thought I should have and the second mile was a little tougher. 9:27....water station was just ahead and I didn't really need it but thought it might be good to drink. I was half way done and during the first two miles was being passed like I was standing still. The low point in the race for me was when the eventually winner of her age group went zooming past (she was 10 I found out during the awards). I took the water on the run and once it hit my lips and I realized it was warm not cold it was perfect. I decided to walk for 1 minute and not spill a drop, I also didn't want the water freezing on my face either. I didn't need to walk and being a competitive person would normally frown on it in a race, I had read about it here and in other places to do this as part of your training, since this was actually part of my training and not trying to win, I walked. After 45 seconds I had had enough walking. One to the third mile.....9:27 with the 45seconds added for walking and the last mile I finished in 8:10 for a total time of 35:27, not that it is/was or every will be a goal, I did notice that not one person passed me during the last two miles and I was actually passing people. It was nice to finish strong. Not only did I reach every one of my goals, although modest ones at that. I was able to walk away looking forward to my next race.

Lessons learned: Need more warm up. I was afraid of being tired if I ran too much before the run. I think that is why I was a little tight the first part of the race. Don't be afraid to walk if you need to and don't be afraid to walk even if you don't. I think it helped me finish stronger than I would of otherwise and probably had a better overall time with the walk than if I hadn't. Don't know for sure though. Run your own race true very true but also very difficult if you don't know your speed/pace. I think practice is the only answer here. I know my 10 min/mile pace. I can feel it. My problem is trying to pace myself in a race at race pace that I can maintain or get slightly faster as it goes. I don't think I did bad in the getting faster each mile part but it definately was all out nor was it race pace. I could of ran probably one more mile at 10min/mile pace or a little less at the finish. No knee pain