Madison Marathon 10K

Since I learned that my brother planned to run the entire marathon course, I kind of forgot that I had my own race. All I wanted to do was to finish my race as fast as possible so that I could go cheer him on. And it started out that way.

First, we interrupt this report to complain about the race. While waiting for the start, the race director told us to follow the pace car and we wouldn't have to worry about a thing. Too bad it didn't work out that way. At the first turn, the car turned left, and we turned right. See ya, wouldn't want to be ya. Lucky for the leaders, us followers knew the course and brought them back. Then, at the bottom of the hill, the 6K runners were supposed to split and head to the finish line. But no course official was there and the cop blocking the intersection didn't have a clue. Again, we tried to get most of the 6K runners on the right course. The one that finished right behind me, pissed that he ran the whole 10K course, must've missed the split. Other than those mishaps, it was a nice race. Back to the action.

I set my watch to set up a 10K race with 7:15 min/mi splits. That's a final time of 45:03, approximately 3:30 better than my previous PR and right at one of my season goals. I wasn't expecting to go that fast, I just wanted to see what I could do. Down the hill and through the course split, my watch beeped at the first mile: 6:30-something. HOLY FRICKIN' MOLEY! (or something along those lines) I slowed way down. (See the chart below.) My first thought was about how much I just destroyed my race. My next thought was that I now had approximately a 9 second cushion per mile. So now I only have to average under 7:24 min/mi to get that sub-45 goal. This just might be doable. I settle back and just keep my stride for the next few miles.

About mile 5 or so, a woman passed me. Unlike me, she paced the race correctly and looked to have a strong finish. She was perfect for me to follow. I stuck with her for the sixth mile. My key jangled in my pocket and my breathing was hard, loud and heavy. It had to be really annoying. Annoying enough that she kept looking back. After the fourth time, I apologized, "Sorry. I'm still here." At least she laughed.

Once I hit mile 6, I dropped the hammer and finished hard. With the help of my pace setting friend, I knew I had the sub-45, but could I get a sub-44? FOR SURE! With the official time of 43:55, I exceeded a season-long goal by over a minute and a PR of nearly five minutes! In the finish line area, I sought out my pace friend. She had a big smile as I approached and I thanked her for pacing me. I got some food and then took off after my brother at mile 14 of his marathon. And he ended up finishing in 4:07 or so. Big congrats to him!

Post Race
I officially earned fourth place in my age group. But since the overall winner was in my age group, he got removed and I got bumped up to third, eligible for an award. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it until Tuesday morning. (No word yet if I still can get the award.) Update: They're sending my placque! More hardware! Sweet!