ATT Ten Miler Race Report

My very first 10-mile race. A success? I guess if you consider that I finished it with minimal walking (more on that later). I wanted to finish strong, but as you can see from my splits, that didn't happen either. I was pretty consistent with my pace the first 5 miles, which is good. I didn't start out to fast, no stitches (only a slight one, no big deal), but I think not racing until 9:00am for a long run is different than the 6:00am I am used to do here the past few weeks. I didn't eat breakfast, and throughout the race, I fought off nauseau a few times. I Gu'd about 20 minutes before the start of the race, took a Gu at the turn around at mile 5, and ate 2 Gu chomps along the way as well. That might have been a little too much. I think I might just stick to the Gu chomps during the race. So here are the details:

Mile 1: 10:37
Mile 2: 10:24
Mile 3: 10:31
Mile 4: 10:25
Mile 5: 10:35
Mile 6: 11:08 - I walked a little at the beginning of this mile to take a Gu.
Mile 7: 10:56
Mile 8: 10:27
Mile 9: 11:13 - This is where it got mental, see below
Mile 10: 11:49 - This should have been faster, pathetic really.

So the race was on a trail, and headphones were disallowed. Since I am so used to running my long runs with my friend Wendy, I could have really used some music. I considered bringing my headphones anyway, but some guy before the race was actually checking everyone. So good thing I didn't.

And the race was small, so by mile 5, I was pretty much running by myself. I could see people ahead, but only a few guys passed me from mile 5 to 10 (except this one guy and girl who passed me probably 7 or 8 times - they would sprint, then walk, then sprint, then walk; highly annoying). So yes, I entertained the thought of walking, oh about the entire mile 9. But I didn't! I pushed through.

As soon as the pictures are posted, I might post them. Depends on how disgusting I look.