Calhoun's 10 Miler - a recap of sorts

Saturday I ran my first race since my marathon in November. I knew going into this race that it was not an A race nor would it be for a PR. Even though I had a race plan setting me up for "racing" I still told myself "training run," race this one. I'm sure my coach didn't have that in mind but it's what I needed to tell myself to keep moving forward.

There is no day before race packet pickup, only race day pickup. No big deal. Just meant for an earlier morning. This race started at 7:30am so it was an early morning. We were still running a little bit behind. My morning was off. I was suppose to be there for a team pic at 6:45. I hopped out of the Jeep as everyone was getting posed for that.

I did a quick little jaunt to the building for my bib, shirt, etc. I talked with friends and decided I better suck it up and get outside for my warm up. I did a mile warm up instead of my regular two, stood in line for the bathroom and talked to a few more friends before making my way outside to the start line.

Weather on Saturday was cold and windy. I wasn't thrilled but made the most of it. I think I've done pretty well with running in the wind and temps this winter so far but still wasn't prepared for what was going to be the last half of this race.

This race is hilly coming and going with the infamous "Cemetery Hill," on both the out and back being equally hard each direction. I told myself to start slow and that it would be easier to make up the pace in the middle to the end if I saved my energy. That's smart and one thing I've tried to work on. It's part of the race plan too.

Disclaimer - I'm too lazy to go back and forth and look up my Garmin info now for this recap. So, no paces will be listed. I'm such  a bum. haha

The first half I watched a lot of people pass me. Some of those folks were people I knew I could run faster than but kept telling myself not to let that get to me because I wasn't wearing myself out early. I could catch up. I did.

I took my first gel at 3.5 miles and after that and the turnaround point I met my hubby who said, "Your race starts now, go." And that I did. My gel kicked in, I had energy and lots of those folks who were ahead of me early on were now sniffing my dust. I never looked back. I only stopped one time because I had to tie my darn shoe. Hate when that happens!

I will say that while parts of this race were a mental challenge and the course was definitely not easy, I enjoyed the second half a lot. However, the wind on that second half was misery. Up to 25-30 mph gust coming up by the lake. I could have done without that.

I did not PR. I think I ended up around 1:41 and some change. A decent training run for long mileage. I haven't decided if I will do this race as a repeat. I think I need to get back into a decent running base and speed again before I decide.