So this has been awhile coming!
I've had better ideas than running a race, in Wisconsin, at the start of winter (November!). I arrived at the race with just a few minutes to grab my packet, walk back to my car to dump my outerwear, and then walk to the start line. The first mile or so, we headed straight north, right into an ice cold wind. Eventually we veered a bit inland, so we had some wind block, although not much. We ran right along Lake Michigan, which was beautiful, but I hate that lake wind!
By the turn-around point at the 5k, I was getting a little tired from the wind. I was trying to maintain a good pace (8:10-8:25), but the wind resistance was making me struggle. The turnaround should have felt awesome, but I kept thinking I'm only halfway! Around mile 4, I kept trying to tell myself I was more than halfway, the wind was at my back, and I needed to push. I didn't have a set goal, but thought physically 52:00 was a realistic goal. The last couple of miles were hard; I got passed by a lot of males, but no females. The finish line wasn't visible from far off; the last half mile or so felt awful, but I went around a curve and I could see it!
Final time: 50:09, which is a new PR!!!
One of my tentative goals of 2014 was to break 50 minutes in the 10k. I didn't know I was so close in this race! My Garmin Forerunner 10 seems to have a hard time tracking accurate distances, so I only clocked 5.9 miles, even though the course was USATF certified and everyone else clocked 6.2 miles. I'm back to running with my Nike watch now, which always seems to be more accurate.
