I love 10K's, it's that perfect mix of distance and speed. You don't have to push hard most the race like you do in a 5K. You don't have time to take in much. Most of your time is spent pushing pain aside. A 10K actually gives you a little time to ease into the race. It's a perfect race to run stalk.
Some (a lot of) runners like to put headphones on and drown out their surroundings when they run. They say it helps them keep their mind off the pain and helps them run faster, but not me. I like to take in the sights and sounds of the world around me especially other runners. I like to hear their labored breathing and the pat-pat or stomp-stomp of their footfalls. I like to check their form see if they are heel striking or mid foot landing I look to see if I can tell what effort level they are running at are they pushing a 9? 10? I chuckle a little bit because I remember being a green runner. You can always spot them within the first mile. They are already breathing extremely heavy, mouth agape and red faced. I really enjoy looking at runners around me at this point in the race. The poor souls.
Mile 2 is the point in the race that I start to get serious. I check my heart rate and it shows that I have recovered from the first hill my breathing is smooth and rhythmic and all of my muscles are warmed up. I'm ready to go. There is a slight down hill as we turn and run through a corner of the neighborhood park. This is where I intentionally picked off my first two victims after almost colliding with one of them, the 20 something male, that choose to stop right in front of me. I did a quick side step maneuver and pushed on to overtake his counter part a 20 something female. We round out of the park and head down another side street straight-away and I hear a man and women conversing. She's talking about keeping under an 8min pace will mean an under 50min 10K. This spooked me a little. I felt like I had just caught up to my pack of runners or those that finish around the same time I do. This would be bad I would not be chasing many more people down if I had already caught up to those that finish when I do. Thankfully she was just running with a guy that was a newer runner and he was huffing and puffing so there was no way this was my group. At that point I picked it up a little bit and looked ahead to the long line of people I was going to take out in my next push.
That next push came as we made two right turns and headed for a downhill followed by the next challenging uphill. This little section of the course is where you loose it if you go out too strong. You have this hill then in a very short distance you have another steep hill followed immediately by a light gradual incline for a good half mile. Nobody gave me challenge early on in this race as I passed a bunch of runners. Most everyone I passed had gone out too fast and was paying the price already. In the last 2 years I was humbled by this section of the course. Twice I wanted to drop out of the race and it was only 2.5 miles in. That's how miserable this can be if you do it wrong; however, this year, my 3rd year, I was ready and this time I mastered it.
The little excitement I had didn't start until mile 3 . This stretch is a nice mostly flat section that ends with a nice downhill that lends itself to speed by not being overly steep. It was this section of the course that I decided I was going to bank some time on. I decided to hold off a little on the start of the decline because I hadn't yet recovered from that last set of hills as soon as my heart rate dropped to a normal cruising pace I hit it and the runners around me didn't like it. I got challenge after challenge every time I sped up to pass I would have tag-a-longs. Tag-a-longs are alright if they come up beside you to pace with you instead of stealing pace from you by running on your heels. The first was a guy about my age with heavy footfalls and rapid breathing. I was more annoyed than concerned as I knew there was no way he was keeping this pace even if the course was all down hill. After about a minute I decided I was tired of hearing his loud heavy breathing and kicked into another gear. He quickly realized I had plenty of gas in the tank and let me go. Next I caught up to a seasoned gal that decided she wasn't ready to let me go so we ran shoulder to shoulder until the steep downhill where I was able to manage the slope better and break free. She was a small thing and was in much better shape than I, but time is a tougher adversary than me and that alone was my advantage.
At the bottom of the hill I knew I was going have to back off and recover from that little game of speed play. The monster hill was coming soon and I would need to save some energy to make it up. I turned the corner and started up the toughest hill on the course a grueling 3/4 mile climb up a 4% grade. I was hoping for better performance up the hill, but settled for forward motion that didn't include walking. This was the only spot on the course that I got passed and I was not happy. Finally with the last hill out of the way it was time to get down to business. I did a quick heart rate check and noticed that it was still up and realized that it wasn't going to come down anytime soon and I I didn't have time to wait for it the end was drawing near. I pressed on giving chase to the group that had managed to pass me up the hill. On the hill I decided to let anyone pass that wanted to I'll catch back up at the top. There were 2 guys that passed me, tall and lanky. The kind of guys that look like runners. One had asked the other if he was ready for the hill. The other didn't answer they just put their heads down and went. They put a pretty good gap between me and them and it wasn't until the final stretch that I caught up to them. We turned the corner and it was on.
You could see the finish as you rounded that final corner coming off a decent downhill where you really had to control your speed and step due to the steepness. While I'm usually quick down those kinds of hills the pack in front of me was just as quick. The problem with that final stretch is that it's long. It's a good half mile to the finish. The good news is my strongest running is always done in the last half mile. I can convenience myself that the faster I go the quicker the pain will be over. As I picked it up I passed a guy that had been walking. I suspect he had been run-walking for a bit at this point and with that kind of recovery you can muster some good speed between walks. The problem was he decided I wasn't going to pass him. That he would just stay a tad in front of me no matter how I tried to push ahead. Thankfully his tank ran out before we got to the finish line and I was able to pull away just as we crossed the 6 mile marker with .25 left to go I spotted my running group friends that where cheering me on. That helped engage the after burners and I dropped the hammer and passed 2 more runners before crossing the finish line.
My final time was a 47:14 and is the fastest time I completed this course by over a minute. My race strategy worked with the hills and it always helps to be running people down.
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