Yesterday I ran a 10k. It was the Run To Feed the Hungry in Sacramento. Proceeds go to benefit Sacramento Food Bank Services. I was on a team, Meetup to Feed the Hungry, which was lead by my friend Kaybee. My time in the race was 56:17 which is not bad. 9:05 minute miles carried me to 43rd place. Right in the middle of my age group with the fastest person fifteen minutes ahead of me and the slowest nearly an hour behind me. Over half the runners in my age group were within ten minutes (plus or minus) of my time.
I'm running the California International Marathon in 9 days and I hope I'm ready. I'm a little worried because of the pulled muscle incident a few weeks ago. I'm planning on running 15-18 miles Sunday and resting for the next week.
Here's what I learned this day...
Start in the front! There's nothing I hate worse at these things than being held back by a bunch of slow-pokes. Today, I decided to be the slow-poke, and I'm glad I did. I started up front with the 7 minute milers. The result of doing this was that I was being passed for the entire length of the race. The waves of runners passing me induced a kind of anxiety and it pressed me on to my best 10k run time ever.
Something I do at these things to keep my pace is find someone who is pulling away just a little and try to keep up with them. They usually pull away and I have to find another. Today, the one I found at mile three was running the perfect pace. Hard to keep up with, but still achievable. At the end, I said to her: "You don't know this, but you carried me for the last three miles. Thanks!" She asked: "You do that too?" Apparently this is rather common. Focus on the hottest set of buns in front of you and try to catch'em. If you do, find a better set further ahead.
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