Ok, so after the whole knee hurting and mental aspect of being afraid to go all out, I decided to go for it today in the Genesis Run the River 10K. It is a flat course, which I know to be a bit mis-marked. Weather was great- tshirt and shorts weather.
I did 1 10 minute warmup, then lined up near the front. Fell in early with two women during the first mile. 1st mile split was 6:23, but I remember it being a bit short from running this race before. In hindsight I wish I would have worn my Garmin.
Anyways, rather than freaking out about how fast I was going, I did a body check, everything felt good, and decided to keep up with these two ladies. Another guy fell in with us also.
One of the women started talking about her Ironman training, and how she was going to 'coast' today, and the other was talking about her flight up to Boston to run the marathon, so she too, was out for a tempo run. Meanwhile, I am breathing hard, yet keeping up well for the 2nd and part of the 3rd mile. It is hard to know what the splits were, so I relied on these ladies for pacing.
We went up over the overpass to Washington's Landing, then on the dirt path, which is really only room for single file running. I kept up until about the 3rd mile, then fell a bit behind. The guy passed me also, but I did not give up. Tried to keep the same distance behind the woman right ahead of me. We wound around Washington's Landing, and I think my 4th mile was pretty slow: almost 8 minutes (but again, who knows with the damn mile markers!). I dug in and reminded myself that I could do this. Goal: break 46 minutes, and hopefully old PR of 45:46.
Halfway through the 5th mile I heard someone behind me. Normally I would let up and let the person pass me if they are breathing down my neck, but kept ahead of her for another 1/2 mile. Then, she passed me around the beginning of the 6th mile and I kept on her as best as I could. The last 1/2 mile I knew I was pretty close to a PR based on my watch, and had to work hard to keep up the pace. Got a bit of a side stitch, but not too bad to slow up. Mentally I kept telling myself: you can do this, you can do this.
Finished, very tired, and HAPPY: 44:48-- almost a MINUTE faster than my old PR, which was from 2003, when I was thinner and running fewer, faster miles in training.
I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF! As much for the mental victory as the physical victory. At one point, I actually found myself thinking that I don't want to PR by too much, b/c I won't be able to go this fast again, but conquered those negative thoughts.... YEA ME!
DH was really proud of me too!
Am a bit sore on my right leg between the hip and quad area, so will stretch out well tonight.
An added bonus: I got 1st in my Age Group!
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