I wasn’t sure how this run would turn out (actually, every run is a mystery, really. You never know what to expect and what will transpire out there on the course!), especially since I was running with a friend instead of solo, as I usually do.
We were shooting for a sub-2 — a reasonable goal given our training paces — and I had a stretch goal of setting a new PR by averaging an 8:43min/mile.
I didn’t quite hit a new PR by event measurements, but according to Runkeeper, I did! And this makes me happy with today’s results. Also, I ran with a friend, which was just as rewarding as hitting a PR…and I was able to keep chatting while feeling pretty comfortable with the pace.
At about Mile 8, we decided to take our pace down a notch: Miles 9, 10, and 11 were the only miles where we ran over 9min/mile (9:00, 9:07, and 9:01 min/mile, respectively).
At Mile 12, I knew I was within reach of a PR (Runkeeper had us at 8:42 pace) and we accelerated to an 8:57min/mile. After we’d hit the home stretch, we were back at an 8:40 and, with about a quarter mile left, I thought I would try to make up for the slowdown with a sprint to the finish. My sprint was clocked at ~7:46min/mile, but it was not enough to bring my official race time down below my old PR.
I regret having sprinted this final stretch–I only really did it because I was focusing on the reported pace in Runkeeper, and I completely ignored the stopwatch time. If I’d looked at the time, I would have noticed I was already too late to try! So leaving Jenny to that final quarter-ish mile was really needless in the end.
Anyway, as I mentioned I’m still happy about the run. I felt strong; I felt like I could have made a new PR skipping over some of the water stations and/or accelerating for a mile or 2 after mile 8 (at about the point where I felt like I really hit my stride).
Final stats:
- Overall:
- Division:
- Gender:
Splits:
5K: 27:16
10K: 54:22
10mile:1:29:03