Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Army 10 Miler

Well I meant to write this report a couple of days ago but I just have been too busy to sit down long enough to write it.
The day started off early. I got up at 4:30 so I could get down to Steve's house were we all were meeting. There were not as many of us running this year as last. Steve and Shelah were late trying to sign up for the race so they didn't make it. They ran an alternate race of 10.2 just so they ran like we did.
After finding a parking spot 8 blocks away from the starting line we headed to the Pentagon for the race. The weather reports were calling for the low 90's at noon. This was one time I wish they were wrong but they were not. I won't bore you with the minute by minute play by play so I'll give you my spits.

Mile #1 7:46
Mile #2 7:28
Mile #3 7:25
Mile #4 7:18
Mile #5 7:54
Mile #6 7:23
Mile #7 7:52
Mile #8 7:51
Mile #9 7:44
Mile #10 7:48

Total 1:17:10

Throughout the race there were many young men, most of whom were Army personel falling out being over come by the heat and humidity. It wasn't until yesterday morning that I found out that a young man from Fairfax VA had passed away during this race. On a similar note, for the second year somebody died at the Chicago Marathon. While waiting for one of our group's runners I noticed and ambulance at the finish line. I didn't know it at the time but they were attending to the man who died.
I thought going into this race that I was going to PR it. My recent training and races had indicated that I was making improvement in my pace. I was hoping to keep my pace just under 7:45. This is faster than I would've done a marathon to date but I figured I could keep it up for 10 miles. It turns out that I ran a little too fast in the first 3 miles and I paid for it at the end. I can not make that mistake in Philly next month or I will not BQ. I think that the heat took it's toll on me and I failed to adapt. I've got to learn from these mistakes in the future.
Well that's really all there is to it. Despite the heat I feel as though I did pretty well and that I am on track for Philly. I started my last 6 weeks of training this morning with a 10 mile run. The temperature was fairly cool but the humidity was already pretty high. I was totally soaked by the end of my run. I weighted myself after my run and I was 189.8. I know that it is about 2 pounds less than what I really weigh but I just like seeing that scale get lower numbers. From here on out most of my daily runs are 10 milers. I have 2 more 20 mile long runs and 1 more 16. Stay tuned... :D

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