This would be my first stand a lone 10k ever. I rolled into this just starting to come off a bike focus and back to a run focus in prep for a December half marathon and then Boston in April. Had an idea that if things aligned I could perhaps go mid to low 37s, maybe 36:59 if all the stars aligned, however, I wasn't real sure how to pace this out but figured I'd try my best to just run even 6s from the go and bring it home with whatever I had left.

Before even started I noticed my GPS was all over the place with pace. Turned it off and reset it but it was still bouncing everywhere, from 4:30 miles to 10:00 miles. Awesome, especially considering I ran into my friend Angie prior to start as she just finished the 5k and she stated there are no mileage markers on course. So much for pacing off anything but RPE; remember what I said about this being my first 10K? Yeah, I'm not even sure what that RPE feels like.

Line up about 4 rows deep at the start knowing there was no chance in keeping up with all the Div I studs up front. At the gun I went out with what I felt was a good pace, maybe a touch fast but like I said, no idea since GPS wasn't working and there were no mileage markers. What I did remember was reading on the website that there would be people at the mileage markers calling off split times so I crossed my fingers. Made a couple turns and headed towards Central when suddenly I hear "5:20 first mile" from a guy on the side of the road. Crap, that's entirely too fast! Backed it down a little bit and new that fast start was going to hurt me.

At mile 2 I could start to feel some of the pain from that fast start catching up to me and oddly enough, I felt like I was baking. It wasn't THAT hot, maybe low to mid 70s, but full sun and zero wind. I don't know, maybe that combined with nothing but early morning 50 degree training runs left me less than prepared for 70s. Whatever, all I knew was that I sat there anxiously awaiting the turn around as there was shade in the south bound lane we would be returning on.

Around mile 2.5-3 it started to get pretty uneventful. I was following a group of about 6 not more than 20 yards in front of me and had nobody around me. Finally I could see the turn around coming up and as the leaders passed going to the other direction I knew my pace was starting to slip. Did I mention there were no other mile markers or split times since Mr 5:20 mile? Checked my watch and it was still all over the place so I was left with just running what I thought I should be running. Turns out I probably should have pushed it and suffered a bit more.

Finally crossed the overpass headed back into downtown Phoenix and I knew we had somewhere around 1.5-2 miles left so I picked it up a bit with the goal of catching the next runner in front of me, a slightly older guy that pulled around me near mile 2. Made a right, then a left and we were a mile out (there were now mile markers for the half marathon runners) and as we passed mile 12 I let it fly the best I could. Hmmm, too big of a kick in the tank so definitely left some time somewhere. Surged past the guy I was stalking but nobody else was close enough to reel in before crossing the line. As I turned to see the finish down the road I could see the clock just turning past 37:59 and felt some disappointment and a lot of "what ifs" started coursing through my head. Ran it in to a 38:22, less than what I wanted but overall still satisfied given my first foray into this distance.

Definitely felt the too fast start and next time need to make it a point to try and start too slow.

Number of reasons. Without trying to make excuses I feel the lack of any pacing indicator really cost me. If I were a bit more familiar with this distance or had more time working on pacing for this distance I don't think it would have been nearly as detrimental but flying blind on my very first 10k wasn't ideal.