IBM 10k - Hell Yeah!!

Time: 6:30am for a race start of 8:00am
Location: IBM
Weather: Chilly cold, but perfect
People: All of Team Rogue was either racing or cheering
Workout: Race this B!! 4 mile warm up, 4 mile cool down.
Comments: I didn't sleep too well, because it was a race. I went to bed around midnight, popped right up at 5:30. I rolled my calves, ate some grapes, got ready and was out the door. I got there early and lingered around while most of the people started their warm up. I warmed up with Melodye. She turned around and I kept going, I got close to 3.5, but decided to stop while my legs felt good.

I found Clemmie and ran into Amy Garza from past Rogue classes and we decided to try and stick together! Goal in my mind was to run sub 8:00's. Dream goal was to finish under 50 minutes. Realistic goal was to PR as best as I could. Current PR stood at 59 minutes, a 9:30/min mile, I can smoke that! My stomach was in knots as we lined up. I went to the restroom before the race, but at the start line I had to go again. Too late, so I figured I'd just deal with it. Clemmie and I were talking and the last race I had done was the marathon last year. Wow, too long! I did Cap Tex, but that doesn't count. Running races and triathlons are completely different. My heart lies with running, and I think that's why I get so nervous. I never have that same anticipation as I have with tri's.

Gun goes off and we're weaving through the field. Clemmie and I notice that we probably started too far in the back, because we were stuck behind alot slower people. I kept on her and we hit mile 1, an exact 8:00 min mile. Whew.. but yikes. I was planning on taking mile 1 a little slower since it was slightly uphill. Mile 2 was nice. We finally found our nitch, but Clemmie was slowly inching away from me. Mile 2: 7:37. Holy shit! I noticed I've never run this fast before in any race and decided to let Clemmie go. Amy was still in front on me, and I decided to keep her as my rabbit to chase. My breathing felt labored, but not hard. I decided to try and keep this pace. I saw Amber on the side and she shouted out for me, thanks for coming all the way from south Austin to cheer!!! Mile 3 felt awesome, I was in the high 7:00's again. (not sure of the split, I didn't have my 2nd Garmin set for that for the race, DOH!!) Mile 4 was a B. I remember before the race Mike was telling another runner that there was a hill, but I assumed it was a roller. NOPE, it was an actual hill. Nothing bad, and nothing we haven't trained on. I charged that bad boy and tried not to slow my pace down but by the time I peaked it, realized maybe I shouldn't have charged. My breathing was crazy and all the conversations I had with fellow runners started creeping in my head.

99% of all the runners I talked to HATE with a passion, the 10k distance. I never had a problem with it, till I heard all the death stories. I heard, "It's like two 5k's.", "You go out too fast, then can't hang on." Lori was in the perfect place and gave me the hoo-yah that I needed to not let the demons in. I thought to myself alot, and I was doing it, mile by mile as Sisson said. I got my breathing back under control and an older guy passed me and said, "Run your own race." How neat. That's EXACTLY what Sisson yelled at me ten million times on the track. Run my own race. So I did just that. I took back my race, slowed my breathing down with longer exhales and got back in my rhythm. Mile 4 was an 8:30 and that was mentally hard because I thought I gave up too much time that I had made in the beginning miles. I kept thinking to myself that it's only 2.2 miles to go, I can do that in my sleep. If I can just make it to mile 5, it's downhill after that. I hit mile 5 and whew, my pace was back to the low 8:00's and this is where I dug. I tried to remember my rhythm from the beginning of the race, mentally went through my form with my arms, my legs, etc. I saw several Rogue's cheering which was encouraging. I kept looking for the finish. I went down Burnet, which was nice and downhill and picked it up. I glanced at my Garmin and saw 7:35 pace. Wow... I thought to myself, I'm doing it, just hold it, just hold it. I couldn't come this far, within a mile and let this slip away. I noticed at the end of Burnet, the runners were coming back up in the parking lot and I thought CRAP! I needed to push it down hill in case the back portion slowed me. I made the turn around and decided to go based on my feel rather than stress myself out on what my Garmin said. I could feel my pace slowing, but I didn't think it was that much. I went fishing. There were some Tough Cookies ahead of me and they were yelling for friends every 2 seconds. Annoying. I was trying to breathe and here they were running my pace and screaming and waving. I reeled them in, and passed them. I was on the home stretch, I could hear Evil. I saw Rogues at the end of the road and decided I had to be close and picked it up and gave everything I had. "only a quarter mile!!" I hit 6, and holy crap, .2 is far!!! I picked it up, heard the Northies shout out, then passed the Rogue tent and heard Mike and his gang scream for me. I picked it up and was hauling, then realized holy shit... the finish line is further away than I thought. I saw Dee, but was already giving it my all, and crossed the finish line.

50:10 - holy shit, that's fast for me! Bummer.. I was 10 seconds shy of reaching my dream goal, but not gonna let it ruin my day.

PR before Team Rogue: 59:00 - 9:30/min mile
PR after Team Rogue: 50:10 - 8:05/min mile, I must have forgotten to factor in the .2 and I never looked at my mile 5 split so I must have slowed down, because I know for a fact mile 2, 3 and 6.2 were in the high 7's.

I'm super proud of myself and a little nervous that I did so well. McMillan says I should have run a 49:01 with a 7:52 pace for a 3:50, but oh well. I'm super happy with the leaps and bounds I made, screw McMillan. I'm not a sprinter and short races just aren't my thing :)

My past goals for races, since I have always been back of the pack material has been to reach 50%. I finally did it today!!

Age group: 26th out of 139 = top 18.7% (WOW)
Overall: 550 out of 1589 = top 34.6% (Double WOW!)