Jingle Dash 10k
You know the saying "she won by a mile"? Well, for my last race, I literally won by a mile. Actually, I did the math and it was more like 1.3 miles
This is my local community's 5k/10k race. The 10k course is two laps of the 5k course. The turnout is pretty small - about 120 people for the 5k and 15 people for the 10k. It's not what I would call a competitive race, but it is a really fun event with some nice people involved.
I've been running this race since 2013 and I've won the 10k 5 of the last 7 years, currently on a 4-year winning streak. Unfortunately, the field has been dwindling each year. From 68 people doing the 10k in 2013 to only 15 this year. It's really sad to see, and I'm afraid that they are going to discontinue either the entire race or at the very least, the 10k. I look at the race as a time trial because the victory feels a bit hollow. In fact, I was the first person to cross the finish line on my first 5k lap - I beat the first overall in the 5k by over a minute.
I didn't do much prep for this race outside of my normal training. I did a very slight taper leading up the race, ratcheting down the intensity of my workouts a few days out. I had a goal of setting a PR, which I suppose is always my goal. But in this case, I wanted to get 38:30, which would have bettered my PR from this same race last year by 9 seconds. I used the PacePro feature on my watch to help dial myself in, but I mistakenly enabled the navigation for the course which made it difficult to focus on the numbers being provided to me since there were so many turns on the course and the turn warning seemed to be glued to the screen.
It was about 23 degrees out at the start of the race, and it's always interesting to see what people are wearing for these types of runs. In my case, it was 5" running shorts with a red Under Armour long sleeve shirt covered by a local triathlon technical tee. I was also wearing light gloves and of course reindeer antlers.
I paced the first lap at 19:19, which put me on track for a 38:37 race - not quite my goal, but still a PR. Unfortunately, I faded on the second lap (one of these days I'll get a negative split!) and ended up finishing the second lap in 19:52 for a final watch time of 39:10. As alluded to, the second-place time in the 10k was 48:37, so he had over a mile to go when I was crossing the finish line.
The Wife signed up for the race but was not feeling well leading up to it. As a family, we've all been hit pretty hard by various bugs this season, though I have definitely had the least of it. The Girl had a 4-day high-grade fever, then a few days later The Boy had the same thing, then a few days after that, The Girl had a 24-hour GI bug that caused a restless night for her and her parents. Staying home with the kids and allowing me to run the race was much appreciated.
I think I'll run this race again next year. If nothing else it will be another opportunity to set a PR, and of course, I can't resist the waffles on a stick.
What's weird is that I am now officially not training for anything. I'm not signed up for a single race in 2020. I'm just some weirdo running and biking 6+ hours a week. Maybe I'll get back into the pool at some point and I can be even weirder.
This is my local community's 5k/10k race. The 10k course is two laps of the 5k course. The turnout is pretty small - about 120 people for the 5k and 15 people for the 10k. It's not what I would call a competitive race, but it is a really fun event with some nice people involved.
I've been running this race since 2013 and I've won the 10k 5 of the last 7 years, currently on a 4-year winning streak. Unfortunately, the field has been dwindling each year. From 68 people doing the 10k in 2013 to only 15 this year. It's really sad to see, and I'm afraid that they are going to discontinue either the entire race or at the very least, the 10k. I look at the race as a time trial because the victory feels a bit hollow. In fact, I was the first person to cross the finish line on my first 5k lap - I beat the first overall in the 5k by over a minute.
I didn't do much prep for this race outside of my normal training. I did a very slight taper leading up the race, ratcheting down the intensity of my workouts a few days out. I had a goal of setting a PR, which I suppose is always my goal. But in this case, I wanted to get 38:30, which would have bettered my PR from this same race last year by 9 seconds. I used the PacePro feature on my watch to help dial myself in, but I mistakenly enabled the navigation for the course which made it difficult to focus on the numbers being provided to me since there were so many turns on the course and the turn warning seemed to be glued to the screen.
It was about 23 degrees out at the start of the race, and it's always interesting to see what people are wearing for these types of runs. In my case, it was 5" running shorts with a red Under Armour long sleeve shirt covered by a local triathlon technical tee. I was also wearing light gloves and of course reindeer antlers.
I paced the first lap at 19:19, which put me on track for a 38:37 race - not quite my goal, but still a PR. Unfortunately, I faded on the second lap (one of these days I'll get a negative split!) and ended up finishing the second lap in 19:52 for a final watch time of 39:10. As alluded to, the second-place time in the 10k was 48:37, so he had over a mile to go when I was crossing the finish line.
The Wife signed up for the race but was not feeling well leading up to it. As a family, we've all been hit pretty hard by various bugs this season, though I have definitely had the least of it. The Girl had a 4-day high-grade fever, then a few days later The Boy had the same thing, then a few days after that, The Girl had a 24-hour GI bug that caused a restless night for her and her parents. Staying home with the kids and allowing me to run the race was much appreciated.
I think I'll run this race again next year. If nothing else it will be another opportunity to set a PR, and of course, I can't resist the waffles on a stick.
What's weird is that I am now officially not training for anything. I'm not signed up for a single race in 2020. I'm just some weirdo running and biking 6+ hours a week. Maybe I'll get back into the pool at some point and I can be even weirder.
Comments
Post a Comment