The New Year

i was able to start the new year with a run. when i saw this race i knew i had to sign up for it. thought if i quit running races i might quit running all together until next summer and for running the race you got a tuxedo technical shirt (which does not look as good as i thought it would). so i did it and i am looking for more races to keep me going. most of mile 1 was downhill so it wasn't too bad. however, i realized just past mile 1 that my right shoe was too tight. i finally had to stop, untie the shoe, loosen it up a little and retie it. that took somewhere between 15 and 20 seconds i am guessing. miles 2-5 were pretty hilly but not that bad, it seemed like the longer i ran the easier i was getting up the hills and the more people i was passing while doing it. however, in the last 3/4 of a mile there was a really big hill that slowed me down and some of those people passed me back. i just kept moving one foot in front of the other. just after that hill there was a blind turn to the left and i could hear lots of people cheering and thought we should be close to the finish. so, as i made the turn, i turned on the afterburners and past several people. however, when i got to the cheers, it was not the finish, the finish still was nowhere in sight. i could not keep that pace up and actually had pushed it so hard, i felt like vomiting now. so i slowed down to my normal pace, and here came everyone else behind me (3 people i think) and passed me. finally i could see the finish, as i was getting near i heard footsteps behind me, so once again i had to gear it up and i did hold them off. my official time was 59:54, a 9:40 min/mile pace. that is 20 seconds per mile faster than my last 10k. overall i was very happy with this run. next year i hope to place :).

thought of the day: sounds simple, but make sure you know where the finish is before making an all out sprint to find out the end is further down the road and you have just used all your energy.