This is the race report for a 10k I ran on Sunday, I’ve been meaning to write this for some time now but I’ve been extremely busy lately. Here it goes:
I woke up at 5am to start my race-day routine, but my stomach seemed upset at being up so early, I was nauseous and feeling dizzy. I tried to ignore it and started drinking my coffee. This made it worse, to the point that I had to throw up. It never crossed my mind to go back to bed, I just thought I had to drink extra water to get hydrated and kept getting ready for the race.
I got in the car around 6:15, the race was near my house and started at 7. I thought I had more than enough time to get there, get my chip, warm up and all the usual. My stomach was better by now and I was feeling optimist about the race. Until I got stuck in traffic. Terrible-not-advancing-an-inch traffic, the kind I would expect on a weekday at rush hour, not on a Sunday morning!!! I had nowhere to go, I could see the entrance to the parking lot ahead of me, I could see the starting line, but I couldn’t get there!!
At 6:55 I finally was going to enter the parking lot, it was late, but if I hurried I could get my chip in time. Wrong! As I was going to enter the parking lot a guy comes and tells me that it was full, I had to find somewhere else to park!!
I managed to find a spot 2 blocks from there, parked and ran like hell to pick up my chip (this was my warm up). After that I needed to go to a porta-pottie quick stop for #1. I found one (at least there wasn’t a line) and as I got in I could see the people running around the corner, the race had started!! After doing my business as fast as possible I went as fast as possible to the start line. I was one of the last people to cross it, along with an old lady with her golden retriever and 2 ladies pushing strollers. Everyone else was ahead of me!!!
My heart rate was at 166 bpm, too high for what I had planned at this point in the race. I turned my iPod really loud and started to pass people. It was terrible in the beginning, it was sooo crowded!! After this most of the race is a blur in my mind. I spend the whole race picking someone ahead of me that looked fast and going after him, passing him and then picking someone else… I did this until I crossed the finish line.
I remember that my time at the 3k mark was 13:xx and then at the 5k mark it was 23:29. After the 5k there was a steep never-ending hill, I went as fast as I could, but could barely maintain an 8:50 min/mile pace through it. But after you climb a big hill, you have to go down… I averaged a 6:58 pace for the next 1.5k!
I had run this route last year, it was my first race ever and I finished it in 53:33. This year I did a lot better:
General Position: 542 / 2785
Position in male group: 484 / 1881
Position in Age group (20 – 29): 52 / 317
And, my finish time: 47:15 Which is, of course, a new PR!! Finally I can run 10k in less than 50 mins!!! Next goal: Sub-45.