10 Miles the hard way

August 27, 2007 by jon.

  As you may or may not know, I’m doing an abreviated training for the Appleton Fox Cities 1/2 Marathon.  That means I really need to get my long runs in so that I am as ready as possible.

  Well this weekend I had a dilema.  I was scheduled to run 10 miles but I also told a friend that I would run the Windrunner’s 10K.  Also, the local flooding of my favorite route made it a little difficult to get some runs in.

  I didn’t want to run 10 on Saturday and be completely worn out for the race Sunday.  It’s been a long time since I’ve run a race to see what I can do.  I’ve run relay’s and a few races with my kids and wasn’t really pushing hard to see what I can do.

  So what did I do?  I ran the 10K Sunday morning then came home and ran another 4 miles. 

  The Windrunner 10K was a nice, smaller race with about 350 runner.  It was in the Danada Forest Preserve and was completely on a crushed gravel trail that 4 runners could run abrest.  Also relatively flat.  The weather was almost perfect.  In the 70’s with a lot of sun.  There was some humidity, but it wasn’t oppressive.

  The first mile and a half or so was fully in the sun before we hit some shade.  Since it was an out and back, that meant the last bit was in the sun as well.  I started out strong, almost too strong and had to hold back a bit.  My goal was to run the race at a 8:30 pace.  At the start I wanted to go a little slower just to get acclimated.  When I looked at my watch and saw 7:45 and 8:00 I had to reign myself in.  By around mile 2 I had settled into a pretty good pace.

  There was a girl who passed me around a mile and I caught up to her again around mile 3.  About that time we were running roughly the same pace so we stuck together.  It’s always better for me to run with someone because it helps to push me.

  As we were coming up to mile 5, we met up with another runner who was slowing down a bit.  (Remember there were only 350 in the race so there was quite a bit of distance between runners at times)My partner tried to encourage him to keep going saying that I was pulling her along and he should join us.  He hung with us for a half mile or so but finally had to drop back.   

  We passed the 6 mile mark and I looked at her (Never got her name) and asked if she was ready to finish strong.  She said to go ahead but I told her to keep up with me.  We ended up finishing together and both slowed down to let the other finish first.  Probably just to thank each other for the challenge.  I finally crossed first and then we high fived each other and we went through the chute.

  I finished at 52:16.  A 8:25 pace.  11 out of 25 in my age group.  Not too bad.  Like I said, I like running with someone because it pushes me harder.  I enjoyed the race and at the end I felt like I actually ran a race!  I was tired.

  So what did I do?  On the way home, I stressed about getting in my 10 miles so I ended up changing clothes and going out again.  This time I stayed around a 10:00 mile with walk breaks every mile.  I figured I earned it.

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