Spring Fling 10K

Wow! It was so much colder than last Saturday when I raced today. When it began I was freezing.  I wore my compression tights and felt like I could have had another layer on over those.  I wore a long sleeve shirt, a vest and my very cozy Run Like the Wind top from Cloudveil.    I wore my new Bondi Band - it's virgin run - and thin gloves.  Once we began I was fine except for my hands.  It took a couple miles for them to warm up.

This race was a 5K and a 10K.  There were slightly more than 100  people there.  We all headed down this somewhat narrow path and it was a little congested at first.  We ran down this path for slightly more than a mile and the 5K people turned around and went back. My first mile was 8:35 which I was very pleased with.  We continued on a loop which went for a very short ways along Lake Champlain.  There were a couple of hills but nothing too terrible.  I thought I had  the second mile when I saw a marking in the road and then was very disappointed when we got to it later.  My second mile was 9:19.  Oops!  I needed to pick up the pace again.  When we got back to the path we did the loop again. I have never been in a race where I had to repeat a section like that.  Of course I have done out and backs but that is not what I mean. I wasn't crazy about it but it was pretty and could have been worse. My third mile was 8:43 so I was back in the game.  I was SURE that I was the last 10K racer. I could see no one behind me.  During the fourth mile I passed a guy and a girl who stayed somewhat behind me. I thought they would pass me back eventually as they were chatting away easily and didn't seem to be working too hard. Then I passed  the Vermont RacingwithBabes with sporty high socks. I had thought I wouldn't be able to even catch up to her as she had been in my site for awhile but I passed her and her friend and stayed well ahead of them the rest of the race so I felt relieved that someone would be behind me. My fourth mile was 9:06 and my fifth was 9:09.  I really made an effort to increase my speed for the last full mile and felt like I was doing it.  Before the end the guy and girl of the easy chatting did pass me.  When I approached the end I heard a yell for me and my son had surprised me by showing up to cheer me in.  I had thought he might race it with me so he did redeem himself by being there!

My last mile was 8:45 and my last .2 was 8:55. According to the race my overall time was 56:04. I was slightly disappointed to be just over 9 as I could have found those 6 seconds somewhere to be under.   Later the race director asked if anyone had a GPS as he thought the course was slightly long!  My GPS said I ran 6.28 and my pace was 8:56!  Yes!  Officially though, a 9:03.

When I got home and saw the race results I was pleased.  I was 1/2 in my age group. I actually thought I might have been the only one!  I was 12/24 for females which really surprised me. Where were all those people?  And I was 26/38 overall.  I'll take that!  The age group prize was pretty lame.

I did make a trip to Dicks where RacingWithBabes says she gets her awesome socks. I decided these socks were just not for me though. I like short barely there socks and I really prefer Reeboks.  I did find some very fun short barely there Reeboks so it was a score!  I also had a fun post race birthday shopping/lunch out with my son!  Yeah!