5/13/06: 18 Second PR on a Tough 10k Course! (Warning-Super LONG!)

More to come tomorrow...but I PRed by a whole 18 seconds yesterday on a tough course in Copperas Cove, Texas, my home town!!! What a great feeling to run at home again...and beautiful weather too...

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Well, now that I think of it, ‘tough’ is subjective. However, when you have a hill that starts the race and another-different (but thankfully downhill one) that ends the race—you know that the race means business! I got to the race nice and early with my mom and dad, since my mom was walking the 10k and my dad has never seen me run before. There is something comforting about running in my hometown, on roads I have grown up by, and having my mom participate and my dad there to watch. Plus, only driving 10 minutes to the starting line was nice too:)

I immediately had to check out the course…I didn’t see the course elevation maps at the packet pickup, but I knew this area of town all too well…there was THE HILL that I use to dare my friends to ride their bikes down (and let them use their brakes if they chickened out!) One of THE FIVE big hills of Cove…yes, it is legendary in our town, and we would be running up it. No biggie, I thought, I knew I was going to get passed running up it…I haven’t ran enough hills in Houston other then cross-country runs to be adequately prepared for that hill. But, I knew I was going to pass people at the end…I think I have pretty good endurance and can handle the end-of-race heat that would get some runners.

It helped that it was cool outside. There was a relatively small group of runners…maybe 300 or so? And I was about 10 feet back from the start which was kind of cool. I ended up lining up next to another lady that would end up coming in second for females in the 5k, she wished me luck and told me she bet I would win the 10k for women since most of the women there were racing the 5k due to the Cen-Tex race series (which only used 5k times for points). I thought that was mighty nice of her and thought nothing more of it...

I already had my game plan…run the first mile on pace at 8:15, run the second mile strong until the hill and then walk if I needed to, make up time in the 3rd mile, push through 4 and 5, and then the downhill in mile 6 into the finish line. I think it would work, at least to get me through the race with a respectable time. The first mile was great, 8:02 pace, a little hilly, so I tried to hold back going into the 2nd mile, until I saw THE HILL. It was 133 foot climb that had a pretty steep grade. I gritted my teeth, stayed relaxed and tackled the first half strongly. The second half, I walked. I immediately was past by at least 5 other runners. Oh well…

I felt aweful by the time I got to the top, and flashbacks of the Toughest 10k from last year went into my head again. I was panting and my breathing was all off. It took me the better half of that mile to feel okay…and I was a minute slower at 9:02 by the time I past the mile 2 marker and got some water. Hmm…time to play catch up. I began to pick up pace and slightly draft (not on purpose!) off an older guy in front of me…I figured he was going at a pretty good clip and he would help me get back on pace. I did get back on, but a 7:54 mile was a little too fast for me! I still had 3 more miles to go!

I slowed down a lot in mile 4 to 8:24, and still managed to past him. I figured he knew he had gone out too fast, as well. NO biggie, now it was time for the homestretch in the 10k, as I like to call it. Mile 5 can usually be a ‘make it or break it’ for a lot of runners as I see it…although I wasn’t passing anyone anymore at this point and was mostly alone (again! Arghh!) I noticed a MUCH faster younger guy in front of me…speeding up and then slowing down. I felt bad for him, I knew the heat was bothering him. I luckily was handling the heat great, not even stopping to drink, but grabbing two cups and going…one to drink a few sips out of, and another to splash over my head. It was nice that I have finally gotten the ‘art form’ of drinking water during a race down, I passed several people at the water stations too…

I finished the mile in 8:15, once again on pace but feeling slow (could I have ran it faster?), and calculated in my head what I needed to PR…I didn’t know if I was going to do it, that is until a guy running towards me that HAD to have already completed the 5k told me I was the second 10k female! I got so excited and gave him a thumbs up, knowing if I wasted too much energy before the downhill and end of the race, I was toast. AND here it came…200 feet downhill. I thought carefully about how I wanted to handle this, having never ran down a hill this steep…I thought of what Strider Barry had told me and carefully placed one foot in front of another and picked up speed and put power behind each step. In other words, I didn’t just let gravity pull me down. It paid off…I never felt like I was about to lose control and I was able to push into the mile 6 marker…7:46! Woohoo for DOWNhills!

So the moment of truth…the last .2 mile. I have to admit I was feeling bad at this point. I put in a lot of work into that last mile, and it was all into the sun. It didn’t help that the finish line looked SOOOO far away! I pushed through to it though, and then heard feet closely behind me. The same guy that I had passed and paced off of in mile 3 and 4 was back and got in front of me! No way! I thought, since I was about to pass my dad and I didn’t want to get passed by another runner in the last 300 yards! I threw my legs into overdrive, increased my leg turnover and got him literally a second before the finish! 51:00 according to my watch! A new PR!!! It must have been pretty dramatic of a close finish, as the crowd erupted into cheers! Hahah, and then I was about to pass out…I sat down for a few minutes to avoid hypervenaliting. When I finally got up, I was shaky in the knees and needed to eat-quickly.

The post-race party food was typical, except I finished early enough to get some sugary cookies (yum) and won a computer briefcase as a door prize. I wasn’t sure of my placing, but we stuck around for the awards and I befriended the runners of the Southwind Running Club, THE local running club, who made me feel very welcome and congratulated me on a good race and finish! They were so friendly and fun to hang out with, with almost all members winning hardware and we even chatted about hanging out after Beach to Bay next weekend.

In fact, all the runners there were nice and fun to talk to. I congratulated the guy that I had duked it out at the finish line, on a good run and he and I laughed about the finish line. I told him my intent was not to pass him, but to PR! I was also congratulated by the girl that came in shortly after me, who was a strong runner, but told me she got winded pretty badly by the mile 2 hill. Awards came and I ended up being the 2nd female to finish the 10k and first in my age group…very cool-and my first placement medal! :) I got to chat quite a bit afterwards with the gal that won the 10k for females…Nelissa Ramsey. She is actually from Houston and lives in the area now and I told her I had the opposite problem! What a nice and humble person. I hope we race against each other again soon, she thinks she will run the Houston Half next year.

Overall, this is a race I would recommend to anyone…maybe not a PR course, but a chance to hardware, small town feel and what is a cooler feeling then being able to thank the race officials personally for a job well done? Plus, it was another cool feeling when I saw girls I went to high school with (that were big-time athletes) and I passed them all during the race. :) Looking forward to the next race in the challenge in Dublin…looks like there are 8 of us ‘alive’ in the Texas 10k Challenge. Looks like if I can continue to train through til the then, (June 10) maybe I can PR again?!

The STATS:
6.2miles

official time: 50:58.5
Ave. 8:13/mile!

Mile1: 8:02
Mile2: 9:02 (dumb hill!)
Mile3: 7:54 (too fast…)
Mile4: 8:24 (too slow…)
Mile5: 8:15
Mile6: 7:46 (yeah for downhill)
Mile.2: 1:33

Heart-rate: 189 ave/199 max.
Weather: low humidity, mid 60’s at start.