My goal in this race is to run/pace my friend Eric. He has never run a 10K and wants to break an hour. His wife told me he really wanted sub 55 min but I didn't hear that from him. A little background, I am getting ready for my 3rd 10K ever. First 54min's the second (May 04) 50 min's, so I am by no means a pro or really any good but I told him I could pace him under an hour. My goal for this season is sub 50 but I am looking forward to getting him under an hour.
We start off from the back of the pack and just let the pace find us. I feel really good the first mile and I am not pushing myself at all, Eric says we are a little fast for him so we slow it down....first mile 8:05. Eric thinks we might have gone out to fast and so he doesn't think about it I mention to him that we just bought ourselves 30 sec's or so, getting his mind right. So the next couple of miles we cruise at 9 min miles. I am not breathing hard, I skip all but one of the water stations feeling really good.
At mile 4 Eric asks me if I thought I could break 50min's today, I smiled at him and he smiled back...I think I would of been definately less than 50 and probably around 48 today. Maybe not but I felt really good. The last mile and a half we get passed by this guy in golf shorts and collared golf polo shirt and it kills me. This guy is beat red, over weight, older than me and I am starting to get bothered by being passed by people, I am still competetive and this is killing me. So I say to Eric after polo dude gets about 200yrds in front, we are going to beat that guy, he is getting tired and we are getting stronger, let's pick up the pace a bit. So I pull ahead by about 5 yrds and then Eric is right on my heels. I run that pace awhile then pick it up again. We finally get to polo dude with about 300yrds to finish. I pick it up to pass him but....what is this, he doesn't want passed and picks it up. I then kick in a higher gear and pull away and then again right on my heels. At this point 3 things go thru my mind
1) I can't believe he is hanging with me
2) This surface is way to slick to be going this fast on (gravel on asphalt)3) where is Eric
Pretty much in that order. I pick it up a little more and the crowd starts cheering us on. I hear on guy say hey look they're racing. So I make sure I finish ahead of polo guy. I turn around after I get thru the line and shake Eric's hand and Polo Dude's hand and tell them both nice race. As we are walking away Eric tells me he finished right behind me, so I was racing Eric at the end afterall. Turns out polo dude is only a year older than me but I must just look young :).

Nothing, this race was fun to run just to run. I didn't have any personal time goals on this, only to get Eric under an hour and try to get him his sub 55. We were close but I didn't mention he had to stop and tie both of his shoes during the race. That cost us his 11-12 secs to get sub 55. I did learn a few things. I have a kick and didn't even get to full sprint, I left some in the tank even at the end. Granted I didn't run this race all out but I did run 6.2 miles and was able to run fast at the end. Secondly it is fun to just go out and run with no pressure. If I enter a race I cannot tell myself to just run slow, I run to win even though I know I am not going to run a 32 min 10K. This allowed me to just run. I would definately do this again with anyone. Next year though, Eric is on his own. :) I also think that this would be a good 13.1 mile pace for my 1/2 marathon next year. I could of run the course again.

Walked around a little bit, drank some water watched the awards.


My running partner but this really wasn't part of the race strategy. I ran the race I needed to run. I ran at a conversational pace. I didn't have any trouble talking to Eric as we ran. He on the other hand didn't really get to notice the horses I was talking about. He said he was listening but just kept his eyes on the ground and feet in front and breathing.


I loved the course thru the Amish country. Lots of horses running in herds along the road. Very scenic for Indiana. Not much in the way of frills before or after the race, just a small town parade and fair type thing going on. Eric told me after the race he was a little disappointed with not breaking 55 but then called me that evening after the race results were posted and said he was thrilled that he was sub 9 min miles...8:54 so every thing turned out great.