Race Results 10K
10K Age Group Awards
Route: Race 10k Run into the New Year
Activity: Run
Google Maps URL: http://maps.google.com/?q=http://share.abvio.com/3302/7a27/4b65/7a5d/Runmeter-Run-20101231-1200.kml
Shortened Google Maps URL: http://j.mp/fXryMs
Started: Dec 31, 2010 12:00:11 PM
Run Time: 43:32
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 6.20 miles
Average: 7:01 /mile
Fastest Pace: 5:50 /mile
Climb: 43 feet
Calories: 582
Official Route: Yes
Notes: I was on a high after this race. Im happy to see progress in many respects which includes my time but other attributes as well. This race felt like a dance and a dance that was like an embracing entrance back into the world of racing.
Running has always held a place in my heart... A place where my heart could express itself and it would be heard by the wind that drew me forward and by the Earth that held my stride. There was and is, always has been, something that has a need to be expressed and in running there is no repression of the dance ... it just plays out as it's felt, no limitations, no restrictions, no ceilings..., just blue skies as far as I can RUN.. it's like writing poetry with my soul... Racing is a dance that surges with exclamation points and exilleration that escalates up and above the clouds until it's expression catapults into a thunder that drives me forward, propelling me forward with no effort at all...
Such is running to me... You might see how and why this form finds importance to my spirit as expression, mind as tranquility, and body as beauty...
So, this race... Yeah, it all came back. This beauty that I spoke of with the addition of modern wisdom
Gained only from years of having lived more than a decade since my last race.
The focus was back. I had no expectations prior except that my dreams seem to tell me truths ahead of time. One was that there wouldn't be enough volunteers. This was true as the volunteers seemed a bit lazy on the course and I ran left at the end where I should have run right. I had to yell to the volunteers to ask, "10K?" wrong way probably cost me a few seconds and certainly I wasn't about to let it cost me a loss to the girl I had just passed, who was now ahead of me due to the mishap. I pulled out a sprint from somewhere inside of me and surged forward knowing the finish was somewhere close by ....
At the start the 5K and 10K started together and since I like to start slower than my pace I was pretty boxed in for almost a full mile. I felt out my pace quicker than I did in the last race, which was good.. It's this feeling that comes over me that just feels SOLID.
The first mile was 7:25. My runmeter says 7:31 as I started the meter at the 6 sec countdown. I knew that my pace was faster, probably at least 7:15, maybe faster and it felt strong and easy. Yep, I could hold this pace, feel it out and maybe surge out faster in the next few miles. I'd be in every moment and feel it out.
Mile 2 was 14:29 so I knew I was running just over 7 minute miles and I could hold it. 22:11 was the clock at the 5K and I knew that if I ran that for the second half that a 44:22 would be a minute and a half faster than my last race.... But my 43:32 was an additional minute quicker than it would have been had I held that pace.
While most people race faster in their first miles, or first half, I've always been unusual in that I race faster in my second half. Mile 4 was my fastest and was the mile that broke from the 5K runners to connect with the lonelier and sparser 10K gang of runners. This also is where my focused eyes locked in on a woman who claimed rank ahead of me in the last race. A surge of healthy adrenaline sped me up and I stayed behind and to her right to draft briefly. But the pace felt slow to me now and I wasn't here just to outrun other racers.. I was here to run my own race, my own PRs, with myself and against my old times. Who I Was ahead of, where I'd place would play out best if I ran my own race.
So I didn't play it smart by drafting for long. Around her and into the wind I flew, keeping the lunged speed to ensure she wouldn't try to hang on.
Then there was another woman who'd placed ahead of me in the last race. I almost repeated the last scenario. Practicing rusty racing techniques of drafting and then surging, I found that I wasn't so rusty. If anything I had gained the additional knowledge of trust in what I was feeling ... How did my body feel? The mental mind games that keep your body racing forward when it feels like slowing down were there.
Surge, go!
The vision of the red numbers displaying a faster time at the finish were prominent in my mind at mile 5. I knew I had to fly strongly by those that I'd pass. Though I was racing hard and feeling it, I knew I was strong... Stronger than those I'd pass. My pace held. I imagined my kitty Lotti, and sent strength to her, I prayed for God to carry me when I felt weak, and my mantra was "CORE" .. running from the core is effortless. Powering with legs and arms demands energy that flows to the sides and out your back - wasted energy. Core is why even my abs feel the next day. All of me feels the race the next day, in a bask of delighted fatigue.
Up the hill on the last 500 yard straightaway and I turned left, yelling "10K??!!" "No!" someone yelled, "Go right!" I pirouetted on a dime and shot back to where the woman I had just passed was now ahead. I now had those lost seconds to make up and another racer to pass again. I sprinted. I have no idea where it came from. Once you hunt the hunted you become the prey and sprinting would give more chance of not being caught in those final seconds towrds the finish.
Catapulting into the shoot and seeing the red numbers 43:32 ... I could rest now..
http://www.runmeter.com
Kristen Westlake
Wildlife and Landscape Photography
http://www.Kristenwestlake.com
Blog: http://www.Kristenwestlake.net
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