St Patty's Day 10K and 5K - A day of firsts and Thirds

A day of firsts and thirds

Firsts:

My first stand alone 10k run for time and my first race completely unplugged (no watch, HRM, or music) in a very long time.

After warming up with the kids… I left them to move to the front. I seeded myself about 6 rows back.

When the gun went off I just started running… no traffic and I was moving at about the same pace as everyone else. At about a half mile in I got passed by Mrs. Ronzon a teacher at the elementary school where my kids went. I knew that she is fast so I decided to try to keep her in sight.

I’d be a liar if I told you that I was all set on running this thing by feel and that I was not craning my neck to see the clock at mile 1. It said 7:09… I had really tried to leave my brains at home… and for the most part forgot the split and kept Mrs. Ronzon in sight. Mile 2 came with 14:xx on the race clock and yes I was looking for it. I seemed to not notice any inclines on the course but tried to push each down slope… no matter how small to keep my turnover high.

I passed mile 3 at 21:4X if I recall… I do remember thinking that I had just run a 5k PR and that I had the 10k PR and my qualifying time for next year’s River Run in the bag but I tried not to think… I remember seeing Layne somewhere on the course… he told me I looked good… but he lies I think…. math failed me on miles 3-6 as I passed the clocks… and that is good I think… my pace waned I’m sure but I just tried to maintain position as best I could.

My goal for this race was under 48 minutes and when I made the turn into the final straightaway I saw by the race clock that 45:XX was in my reach…. And I just made it in 45:59.

After a number of bad races and one so so race… I feel like I finally got it all together and ran a good race.

And for the thirds:

Masey got third in her age group… .