Fit To Be TRI'd: Race Report: Perfect 10

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Race Report: Perfect 10

This past Sunday I raced in the Perfect 10 - where you have a choice of 10 miles and 10K. I had a 6 mile run scheduled for the weekend long run so of course that made the 10K 'perfect' for me! Team Rabbit rapped about the race on Monday, but I wanted to write my own report.

Earlier in the week I'd had a tempo run scheduled. When it came down to the workout I was just not feeling it! I actually had cut the workout short. I did little the next two days and had decided on race day I would make up the tempo run. The plan was to take the first two miles at an easy pace, then up the tempo for miles three and four, and maybe five. Then back off for the final mile point two.

The day before the race I picked up a bunch of race packets: mine, Lisa's (running bug aka RBug), Kathy's (running buddy aka RBud), Jeff (aka no nick name), and of course Carol (SRab) my partner in Rabbit crime! RBug picked up her things from me on Saturday, RBud and Jeff were riding with me, and SRab was to meet us there! Sunday we arrived early enough and parked right next to SRab! RBug was doing a warm up loop through the parking lot and found us! Before we knew it it was time to gather at the start! Got to see Kim on the way there!

The 10-miler and 10K all started together. The course was a nice rolling loop! As planned I took the first two miles easy and got to run with SRab. We hit the 2-mile mark and she was going to tone it down while I was going to amp it up. And I did!

My third mile was right about on target, even with a hill / climb thrown in. However, the fourth mile was above the target pace as there was another longer climb. I decided I was ready to back off the pace a bit, but not slow down to my warm-up pace. And believe it or not, there was enough of a decline that my fifth mile was faster than my fourth! I kept at the pace and caught up with RBud just past mile 5. She and I traded off in the last mile and then at the end I worked on my finish kick. Thankfully when I got to the track it was good to see that I only had to run about a quarter of the way around, as opposed to three quarters, like some of the races that finish there. Just as I was nearing the finish line I was passed by a speedy gal who was finishing the 10-miler! Wow! This is nutty but I heard her tell someone right after we crossed that she had puked! I can only imagine how much faster she would have been had she NOT puked!