Get in the Pink 10K Race Report

I got up early in the morning, so that body would have enough time to completely wake up by the start of the race. I'm not a morning person, and I have to be especially careful with morning races (and most are morning races indeed).

We arrived a few minutes before 8am. The race was scheduled to start at 8:30. I warmed up nicely, and I even found a port-a-potty at a construction site nearby, so I didn't have to wait in line at the race. I met a colleague, Mark, and his fiance before the race. They were planning to run at her pace together, so we agreed that I would move up closer to the start line. I wanted to run the race in 45 minutes.

The elevation profile was not favorable to me. We started with a 3 mile descent and then we had to climb back up. Knowing this, I tried to start strong, and I almost kept up with the leaders for the first half mile or so. By that time, I found my own pace and the leaders started to pull away. I was pushing the pace, fully understanding that I had to do well on the first half to perform well overall.

Very soon, I was completely alone. Most of the 230 participant were behind me, some ahead of me, and I was running my own race. To my disappointment, there were no mile markers, so I could only guess how fast I was. Then finally at mile 3, they put out one mile marker (that was all for the whole course). I was below 20 minutes there and I was quite happy with my time. More exactly I was slightly worried that I was too fast, but I felt fine, and I just had passed a big guy in a "US Army" T-shirt, which gave me some confidence.

Then the uphill section started, and I tried to run by effort level, sometimes slowing down significantly. I think I slowed down too much here, I over worried my pace/endurance. I wanted to ride the course on the previous day on my bicycle, but I sort of ran out of time, and I also didn't want to ride too much on the day before the race (the distance of the course from my place is at least 10-15 miles). So I didn't really know how much was left.

The finish line was long straight street, and the finish was at least 1/2 mile ahead. I was still completely alone, in fact before tuning into the long finish line, I had lost sight of every other runner. Then, when I knew how far I was, I started to push, but it was too late: my stopwatch turned 44 minutes and I had no hope of getting in within 45 minutes, or even any close to that. I pushed very hard at the end. Seeing my time and feeling the pains in my body, I almost stopped 200 yards before the finish line, and I had to remind myself that quote by Lance Armstrong: "Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever."

My family was cheering for me at the finish line! They were very nice, and my kids were very touching as they yelled: "Go Daddy!" This was the first race of mine that they visited. (Well technically the second, but they missed my finish on the first one.) Unfortunately I got in with a disappointing 46:40, way behind my original time goal. This was 14th place overall and 4th in my age group (30-39). Only age group winners and overall winners received awards, so there was nothing for me on Saturday.

Even though the placements don't seem to be too bad, the time speaks for itself. The only reason the placements are OK is that this was a small race, at least not too many serious runners came. I have to figure out the reasons. I really think I didn't leave everything on the course, I should have run up those hills faster. A guy passed me at around mile 4 (already at the uphill section). I talked to him at the finish line, and he had a time 44: something. He wasn't running that fast, I could have easily followed him, but I was afraid I would blew out before the finish line. The fact that I was able to push that hard just before the finish probably shows that I didn't push hard enough before that.

It was also the heat. I am still not acclimatized to the newly arrived summer. It was only maybe 75 degrees, an even in the sun on the pavement, it couldn't have been more than 80. I endured much hotter temperatures in my cycling days. Maybe running is different, more intensive, and there is less air cooling effect.

I've been bugged with Achilles tendon sensitivity, too little sleep (finals' week at work), and hectic schedule recently, and I had to skip some of my training runs, and I had to move other around the day.

Or maybe I should just stop whining and accept that you can't run perfectly every time. So just shut up and go back to train.