Iron Girl 10k Race Recap

Since I already spoiled the surprise yesterday, I had such a great race! Lately all my races have been great and I attribute it to Crossfit and my ability to endure and push past the pain threshold.

My bib has my name on it. I was way too excited about this!

Backing up.

Sunday my initial plan was to get 6 miles in and then race. After several awesome long run weekends in a row, I decided to up it to 10 miles plus the 10k so I would have 16 total for my "long run". 

I knew this was ambitious and didn't really know what sort of goals to go into the race with. As usual, I just told myself to take it how I feel and if after 10 miles I was tired, I would go easy on myself for the race.

Well, the 10 miles flew by easily. I got started just as the sun was rising. I ran down the Burke Gilman trail and up Stone Way to Green Lake, where the start of the race was. 

Hark! I see sunlight!

By the time I got to Green Lake, I was tired, I'm not going to lie. Before I had a chance to mentally doubt myself, I put on my race bib and ate several shot blocks and a date. I was so glad I had decided to wear my Camelbak so I could have lots of fuel, water and my cell phone. Although I'm sure some people looked at me strangely for running only a 10k with a hydration system on my back! Whatever, I'll bet I beat them in the end. (Who's laughing now?! Muahahah!)

Then I went off in search of my Crossfit friend, Beth, who I had conned into racing with me despite her getting back from Croatia just 2 days before. 

Tee hee. I'm such a race pusher!

I found Beth in the corrals already and was so happy to see her! My excitement immediately returned and I was feeling energized again!

Sarah also found me (I told her to look for a pink Camelbak. I'm not hard to miss) and it was so great to meet her before the race!

In the corrals, ready to RACE!

Beth and I joke around all the time that we both have an inability to just "take it easy" in a workout. No matter how tired we are, once that clock starts, we both have one speed and that is crazy.

Beth was running the 5k and I was running the 10k, so there was no chance we were going to stick with each other for the race. We settled ourselves at the front of the corrals near the start so that we wouldn't have to do too much weaving around people. 

Since I was feeling pretty good, I decided to try to keep around an 8 min/mile pace. The start was a bit of a "cross country" start in that it was on grass. I was not all too happy about that and totally almost fell on my face! I kept my footing, though, and finally made it out onto the road. 

When I heard that the 5k and 10k were running together, I was a little confused as to how that would work and what part of the Green Lake loop we were going to do. The outside loop is small, so I wasn't sure how they were going to cram so many runners in there. Luckily, they had half of the road blocked off, so after the initial start, it was easy to spread out. 

I looked down at my watch after half a mile and saw that I was holding a 7:50 pace. Hmm. That was slightly off my intended pace, but I felt good, so I went with it. 

Mile 1: 7:50
Mile 2: 7:51
Mile 3: 7:41

3.1 miles in to the race, the 5k-ers peeled off to finish. I thought this would be painful to watch as I would want to be done as well, but I was excited that I got to keep running! (What a weirdo!)

Mile 4: 7:31

After I kept hitting mid 7-minute miles, I told myself that after mile 4 if I was feeling good, I would pick up the pace a bit for the final 2 miles. 

I got to mile 4 and did just that. Of course, about that time I also started feeling a little tired. Camelbak to the rescue! So glad I had some water on me. I chugged a few sips and immediately felt better.

After the 5k'ers were gone, I knew everyone left was doing the 10k. I started getting super competitive (surprise, surprise) and decided to pass everyone I could. My pace kept falling as I kept getting more and more excited with passing people. 

Mile 5: 7:18
Mile 6: 6:53

I was feeling really rough the last mile, although you wouldn't be able to tell it by my pace. The last half mile I literally gave it everything I had. I saw Beth in the last little bit (she had already finished her 5k) and started sprinting towards the end.

I finished in 46:58, which ended up being 13th place overall and 2nd place in my age division! Not only is this a new PR, but it's a new PR after already having run 10 miles. Crazy!

And I got a pretty medal, which was sweet!

I found Beth pretty quickly after the race and found Sarah a little after that. Another great race down!