MVCA Race for Christ 10k...

This past Saturday Wife and I drove about an hour to a little local race.  The reason we did this was because I wanted to get a 10k race in as part of my half marathon training.  Wife did the 5k and got a nice little PR out of it as she went under 29 minutes for the first time.  Congrats to her.

Saturday was just about perfect weather for a race.  It was overcast and cool, right around 50 degrees.  This was a small race with only 29 people running the 10k.  However, I was confident in my training and felt great before the race.  It was an out and back course and we were running with the 5k'ers for the first 1.5 miles.  After that things thinned out quite a bit.

As usual I started out to fast.  This is something I'm trying hard to work on.  I ran the first mile in 7:38.  With my goal being 8 minute miles, I knew I needed to slow down.  I got myself slowed down a little and ran the second mile in 7:51, I guess I needed to slow down a little more.  Halfway through this mile is where the 5k runners turned around, so we were out on our own now.  This helped a little to get me to relax and get in a rhythm.  I ran the 3rd mile in 7:57.  Nice!  That's right were I needed to be.  I had a new set of problems now.

As I began to slow down I lost the person I had been running with as she left me behind (I can't believe she didn't slow down with me).  There were still people within view, so I still had something to work for.  Around the 3 mile mark I passed someone and that left me with a lot of open road ahead of me.  Basically I ran the last half pretty much alone.  There was a guy just a bit behind me.  From time to time he would get a little closer, and I would do a check and realize I had slowed down a little.  So I'd get back on pace and pull away a bit.  That's how the last half of the race went.  The 4th mile was 8:02, the 5th mile was 8:10.  As you can see I was struggling just a bit.  But then I picked it up for the finish.  The 6th mile was 7:49.  I gave a pretty good kick at the end and finished in 48:21.  That was good enough for a new PR.  The course was a bit short I think as my Garmin measured 6.15 miles.  I know Garmin's can be off also, but I'm still calling it a 10k PR.

After the race we hung around for the awards.  This is not something we usually do as we're middle of the pack type runners.  However, I knew this was a small race and I knew there weren't many guys running the 10k.  This turned out to be a smart move.  I got 1st in my age group!!!  What?!?!  Yep, I won my first age group award.  That was kinda cool.  I beat the two other guys in my group, but a win is a win, right?

Overall it was a great race.  A new PR along with a age group win.  I'll take it.