Yesterday morning I went fishing, this morning was a 10-miler race!I've run this same race the past two years finishing in the 1:28:30 range. I felt confident that I would run faster this year.
It was around 70 F with high humidity and drizzle at race time.
I signed up for the race about 20 mins before the start while sipping on my McDonald's coffee. Took my event shirt back to my car. Pinned my number on my shirt. Jogged a few blocks back the to race area. Decided it was a good idea to stop in the restroom before the race even though the Star Spangle Banner was being song. I stepped into the racing crowd 40 secs before the start. I was in the mid-back area.
The start was slow. I should have started further up. It took about 4 mins to weave through the slower runners and get to a reasonable pace.
I came past mile 1 just a bit over an 8:00/mi pace. Mile 4 was 32:40 overall. I calculated an 8:10/mi in my head. My watched said I'd passed the 4 mile mark at 31:22. I liked my watch results better, but the race markers where the official ones.
I just tried to the hold the same pace. The drizzle was a bit annoying, but not bad. I felt I could run faster, but didn't want to run out of steam.
I came past the 5 mile loop starting point at 41 mins and change. I knew at that point I was going to break my old PR (1:28:30) for this course by some minutes. I ran the next 5-miles at pretty much the same pace plus or minus some seconds finishing in 1:22:45.
