Crunching numbers

Numbers:  Trying not to focus on them is hard when you're a runner that also likes to track, plot, and analyze them to death.  One glaring number for me lately is 45.66.  That's the number of miles I ran last month.  Yep, not in a week, the entire month of March.  For the majority of my friends who also run, that's a normal LOW weekly mileage.  Can't help but prey on your mind especially once you finally get an opportunity to toe the line on a race.  Oh yeah, that's something else that's nagging at me--3 races this year, 2 of which were these last 2 weekends.  

I'm sure some are wondering why it does bother me, after all, I'm just a middle of the pack runner, rarely do I crack into the top 10 females at a finish line, much less the top 5.  But I do take this seriously.  I want to do the best I possibly can in a given situation and let's face it, I'm a bit competitive with my other middle of the pack running mates.  Not in the rude, in your face, you're going down manner but I do want to know that I gave it my best shot wherever and whenever I happen to race.  And of course there's the always elusive PR (personal record) or PB (personal best as those across the pond say).  In a way I'm always racing against MYSELF more than any other person. That being said, hearing your name called for an age group award ROCKS!  Ok race report time :-).

(spent too much time here before and after the race, yuck)

Today was the Capital City Classic 10k, my absolute favorite 10k course, it's flat and when I bother to look around, has some absolutely gorgeous scenery.  I really should have skipped it this year though, yesterday I was plagued with the most hellacious pollen induced headache for most of the day and just felt completely out of it.  Top that off with gastrointestinal issues today and it doesn't make for a very promising race.  Didn't even bother doing any warmup, my goal was to just finish and gather up the grand prix points for crossing the finish line. Thankfully several of the people I try to run with whenever possible that are around the same pace as me were there (YAY!!).  

(some of my gurls!!)

First mile I woulda sworn that I wasn't going to make it to mile 3 much less finish......felt extremely lethargic and just couldn't seem to get my legs to move.  Funny that it was at an 8:02 pace, sure didn't feel that fast. We also had a VERY heavy breather fall in behind us, I don't want to knock anyone getting out there but oh man does it throw off my breathing rhythm :-(.   Mile 2 finally settled into a good steady, sustainable pace and grabbed a water from the first stop........huge mistake!  My gi issues decided to flare up then, yikes! Right, steady pace, steady breathing, work through it--8:30. Mile 3 I felt like hey, I can make it so long as I don't have to make a sudden pitstop in the woods, lol--8:28.

Mile 4 starting to catch up and pass people(and a few were passing me, grrrr), joked around with a few runners around me  which helped me pick up the pace, stomach issues were easing (thank goodness!)--8:12.  Mile 5, can see Carol's ponytail in the distance so made that my goal to catch her, she's fantastic to run with, always a great cheerleader--8:12.  How odd are those mile splits? Bang on though.  Mile 6 was  cheered on by Carol and that helped me picked up the pace--8:02.  And then comes the longest .26 miles evah!!!!  Could see the finish chute but didn't think it was getting any closer no matter how fast I ran--1:54 which works out to a 7:18 minute pace per mile.  

All told, my garmin time was 51:18 (didn't shut off right away), official time was 51:16, not a chip timed race with over 500 participants so that's not bad at all......especially for a race I intended to use as a training run.  Ended up being a course pb, last year was 53:22, 2009 was 51:50.  I think this is my 4th best 10k time overall but would have to do a more thorough check before saying so for sure.  Good enough for 3rd in my age group today and with my training numbers lately, I will own today proudly.  Finished it up with  3.28 miles with friends to bring my total for the day over 9.5 miles.

Today's age group award, really funky looking re-usable plastic cups. Much heavier than they look.