Category: 10k race

This weekend I ran in a race that proclaims that it is the 14th largest race in the United States. I’m hazy on the details of how they know year to year how large a race will be but in this case, it felt like the 14th largest race in the country.

There were 640 women in my age bracket!

Yes, in a 5 year age bracket. I didn’t win my age group. Though according to my math loving husband, my 34th pace finish was almost in the top 5%! There were so many people passing me, I was surprised there was anyone left behind me!

What I did wrong

I went out way too fast. I had not been training for faster than a 9 min mile pace for 6 miles and I wanted to be at 8:30 on race day. I was too fast for the first 2 miles, around an 8:10 to 8:15 and too slow in mile 4, over a 9 min. My average was around 8:45 but I think if I had started at the 8:30, I might have had a better chance of staying there.

It’s hard to “run your race”when there are 14,000 people around you, I really wanted to match my seed thime of 53-55. I managed to stay under but I think a more consistent run would have been better for me psychologicaly.

I shouldn’t have used ear buds or listened to music. This race is known for having a “Block Party” feel. There are bands on every corner and porch parties the entire way. I had my music turned down so I could hear if someone yelled “get out of the way!” or “runaway bus!” I didn’t really get into my own music due to the ambient noise. I didn’t really get into the live music or the party atmosphere because of my earbuds. I would have been better off leaving the music at home and enjoying the race.

I was nervous about being in a large crowd and it affected my sleep. I am a little paranoid and the though of a violent or random attack was in the back of my mind. I don’t know how much you can change the way you are wired. Large races like this one, might not be for me!

What I did right

I pushed hard and didn’t quit. Until the finish line, then I felt like I would throw up for a minute. I am a lazy runner. I don’t like pain. I had a cramp around mile 4 and actually stopped for a few seconds, touched my toes and then pressed on! After this, I got back on pace and finished to the best of my training.

I paid for parking earlier in the week. Not knowing the course and worried about navigating the “big city” on race morning, I did something I wouldn’t normally do. I paid for parking. In advance. I reserved a spot quite close to the start/finish line and it made the morning much easier. We even walked back before the start to put our sweatshirts in the car.

We arranged a meeting spot. Finding a single person out of 20,000 people in hard. Planning a meeting spot is easy. Do it the easy way. We were not running with our phones and made sure we had a meeting spot so one of us didn’t have to walk home.

I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried a new race, in a new city. This is what I love about running. Running is a great way to explore new places. I find that when I do too many of our local races, I lose this sense of freedom and exploration. One of my goals is to try new races in new places!

This is a cross-over post, like when the Cosbys visited the Keatons (pretty sure that never happened but there were a lot of these type of cross-over episodes in the 80s.)

Our original interntion with the off-grid cabin was to provide our family with an active project in the midst of a global melt-down in order to maintain what little sanity my genetic code can provide for us. It was also meant to be a handy sleeping spot for the many hikes and bike trails we enjoy, typically 3 ish hours away from our home. Up until recently, my children felt like it was the equivalent of a North Korean work camp and not so much the idyllic escape or homestead I envisioned. Most of our road races were cancelled or “postponed” indefinitely this summer so I was pleased to find an in person 10k trail race in West Virginia.

This would be my second ever 10k, my family’s first even 10k race. None of us had ever run a trail race before, certainly not up a mountain in West Virginia. The start time was 10 am, leaving us ample time to use our “facilities” and drive the nearly 2 hours to the New River Gorge.

A beautiful drive! Islands in the stream, that is what we are.

We arrived at the race and filled out the Covid-19 required forms, we had our temperature checked and wore masks up to the start line.

I have never run in a trail race before and there was also a half-marathon race at the same time. They did not start us by expected finish time. I learned the hard way that you want to be in the front if you are actually planning on running up the mountain. My daughter and I “ran” the first uphill mile on a single track behind people carrying walking sticks. And walking with walking sticks. I wish I had video of the awkward running in place behind these people. I tried desperately to get around them and not fall off of a cliff. I was hopeful that my son and husband had made it past this walking stick wielding group because I know they would opt to go over the cliff rather than run in place behind this group. Death before dishonor.

My daughter is a warrior, she is only 10 but always ready to try anything! We finished strong, the trail widened up once we neared the top of the trail and we were able to actually run, finishing in the middle of the pack. My son placed 3rd overall, husband was 6th, an overall success for all of us!

Did I mention the view?

Most importantly, our worksite had become not only a cabin but a getaway!

More words I never thought I would type. Even after I started running but still did not refer to myself as a runner, I said something like, “3.1 miles is as far as I will ever run, you would have to be crazy to run further than that.”

I ran two 8k races last year, including the Busch Gardens “Christmas Town Dash,” which may have been the precursor to my “mysterious foot ailment” written about in this post.

I was surprised that I could run 5 miles when I usually feel like dying after one, let alone 3.1. I realized that I actually liked these longer runs, I paced myself better, started slower and felt stronger. I think I could have run them faster, I was around a 9:15 min pace for the 8k, but I was also running with my 9 year old daughter ( she rocked it!)

There is something about the pace and the sprint feeling of running a 5k that gives me anxiety. When I was preparing for this 10k, a race I decided to run less than a week before it happened, I didn’t set a specific time goal. I wanted to finish!

I had dreams about the little golf cart (turns out it is a bike) sweeping me off the course when they had to reopen the road to the public. I did not want to be swept away on a golf cart. Or a bike. I ran 5 miles the day before the race and felt like I did a pretty good job on a trail that was hilly and rocky and resigned myself to a 6:45 am race day registration the next day.

I hear the best way to train for a race is to set an arbitrary time and hope that you don’t get “swept away” by the course marshall. I am not even sure if this is a real phrase or if I dream/nightmared being a golf-cart-driving-course-marshall-sweeping me away.

I don’t like to plan things too far ahead which confuses people as I am pretty uptight and type A but I now realize this has more to do with wanting to keep my options open for any and all variables such as weather, illness, mood etc. I do the same thing with travel plans, I hate to plan too far in advance and prefer to “wing it” with a rough itinerary.

Back to My First 10k. It was awesome. It was an unusually cool morning for the time of year, I told myself it was ok to do 10 min miles, but I really wanted to be in under 1 hour. I started strong but tried not to go out too fast, the adrenaline rush is strong in me! My first mile was a 9:20, much faster than I had “trained” for this distance and with thoughts of golf carts sweeping me away, I slowed to a 9:30, a pace I stuck to until mile 5 where I slowed even more to a 9:40. I had also given myself permission to stop and rest/walk/drink water during the race. I don’t usually stop in races but I stop all of the time when I run for fun… I like to run with my daughter so I can say it was her idea but I know it’s probably because I feel like stopping!

I did not stop even once. I did not need water, I felt like I was on a conveyor belt to the finish and managed to get to a 9:17 pace for the final quarter mile! Average pace was 9:33 and I finished in under an hour, 59:45. I actually chatted with the woman who I was following for 4 miles, staring at the back of her head in a zen-like fashion. I probably ran slower the last two miles because of it, but I think it made the race more enjoyable and helped distract me from the fact that I HAD NEVER EVER RUN THIS FAR!

I also ran this race alone, I didn’t think this was a good distance for my daughter, my son had been doing pretty intense high school cc conditioning and my husband was recovering from an injury. It was just me and it felt good! My dear husband drove me to the race and cheered me on at the end, I think I surprised him with my cheerfulness in the home stretch.

I am still “learning new tricks” but I think that you would have to be crazy to ever run more than 6.2 miles…. If you want to try something new, sign up for a 10k! You will love it!