RACE REPORT: RUN2OVERCOME 10K 2012

Decided the night before the race to do this race.  I was going to travel the next day, and it had been a month and a half since I raced last, so it would be an injection of fun.  It would be hard to fit in races within the marathon schedule later on, so I should get it in now if I can.

It's been 11 years since I last did a 10K race!  8th grade was the last time, I think.  There aren't as many 10Ks, and when there are, I can't make it, or there are Halfs, etc.  Looked up the McMillan calculator to see what I could expect.  I had a fairly light week, so my legs should've been fairly fresh.  Based on past 5K-HM times, I could expect 43:11 under ideal conditions.  It would be a bit warmer than that, though, and it turned out to be moderately hilly.

Just went by feel.  5K race pace is 6:41, and ideally, this would be 6:56, so just go a bit slower than 5K pace.  We started off at 7:30am.  The Olympics had been going on for a week.  I wore my USATF 2004 Olympics kit to mark the occassion.  That was a big reason for my decision to run this race - to have fun and pretend to be racing in the Olympics, haha.

In the first 0.2 mi, there were 3 girls leading.  One was wearing light green, one was wearing red and white, and one was me.  I was tempted to say "you're Brazil, and you're Canada", but I contained myself.  I got a few "Go USA"s and the like, which was fun.

Hills started in the latter parts of the first mile.  Practiced my arm form - relaxing during downhills, in preparation for the energy conservation techniques I'd need during the marathon. 

There were 3 water stops, which was nice.  It was a smaller race compared to the bigger ones in town.  The signage could've been better at a couple of turns, but nothing too serious.  Sun came out in mile 4.  It had been cloudy and threatening to rain before.  Cloudy is perfect.  Mile markers were probably a bit off (first long, last short), but they could still be used to reset my watch everytime so that I could estimate how far I had gone between the splits, based on the elapsed time. 

Finished first for the women in 45:54.  Considering the warmth and the hills, not bad!

(Photo credits: Pace Magazine - Greenville's pure Running Mag)

No prizes, so it was truly a fun run / awareness run.  Had fun, raised awareness, check, check.

I still had 10 miles to do on my training schedule, so it was a double!!!

After eating and napping, my legs still felt stiff, but while packing for the next day's trip, my legs loosened up, and I headed out to the park.  9.7 in 1:28:18, 9:05 ave.  Fairly consistent pacing.  Practiced using my glutes to power the run.  It was great!!!  Took a load off of other muscles.  A Running Times article that I had seen but not read yet had mentioned people underutilizing glutes.  It'll be a technique to use in the future.

First week of marathon training - done.