Race Report

July 4th
MSUM 10k 34:01 8th place

Here are the mile splits for the race according to garmin:

5:39 | 5:31 | 5:35 | 5:22 | 5:17 | 5:19 | :68ish

So the plan for the race to begin with was to run the entire thing in about 35:00. Well as you can tell the plan changed. 35:00 is about 5:38 mile pace and I wanted to go out and run the first three between 5:40-5:45 and then run the last three around 5:30. The few workouts that I have done have not bee that great so I thought it was going to pretty hard. I started out in about 10th place and just let all the leaders go. I was probably close to 40 seconds back from the other 10 1 mile in. I only caught two of them but that was fine. I started out the first mile a little faster than I wanted but I felt really in control. Granted it was only a mile so I decided to stay with the pace and run with the person I was with.

The second mile felt great also with no real concerns as I crossed the mark. I felt really good and had dropped one of the guys that I was running with. During the third mile it was a straight shot for a mile into a head wind. This mile had the same effect on a couple of other people as well as it was one of there slower miles as well. I hit the 5k in 17:25 and thought that I was already 10 seconds ahead of my goal pace and was feeling great so I started to pick it up a bit.

At this point I asked the high school kid that I was running with what his goal was. He didn't really have one in mind but just wanted to try and stay with me. He sounded like he was doing really well but ended up dropping him within the next half mile. I passed Joel Rovang at the four mile mark and was still feeling great. I was starting to think that I was going to be able to break 34 minutes if I was able to continue running faster every mile.

I put in a really good 5th mile and was starting to feel the pain that I had forgotten over the last two months. With 2k to go I could see the 34 min barrier in my sights and thought that it was a lost cause as I was mentally starting to cash in. At 9k it was going to be a give it now or not at all kind of thing. The watch read 30:45ish when I looked at it so all I thought was damn 3:15 is going to be hard right now. I gave it all I had and came rounding the last corner with the clock reading 33:45 and I thought no way is it going to happen. Official finishing time 34:01 :( so close yet so far. The splits from my watch read otherwise and it had me at 33:55 :D I prefer that one but I will go with the official time.

Overall I thought the race went really well for having no clue what the hell kind of shape I was in. the 17:25 to 16:35 negative split was really promising as well. I am going to try and run a good 5k at a road race in about a month so hopefully I can be right around that 16:00 range plus/minus 10 seconds. The overall time was not that good but the effort was great
Overall Grade B+