Well, this race report is almost two weeks overdue. I've been . . . otherwise occupied, and not at all interested in blogging about a race at which I didn't even perform to my potential. But the weather was nice, and there were lots of happy people, so the race wasn't a total bust. A good day, but not a great race.
Morning began late for me, because I'd been out late the night before. But I hadn't been drinking, so at least my race prep was better than for this race. I rode to Sedgwick County Park with my parents. My dad was running the 10k, and my mom was going to try her hand at the 2 mile run (NOT the 2 mile walk!). Weather was perfect: mid 50s with a light wind (this being Kansas, anything under 20 MPH is light) and plenty of sunshine. I shucked my warm ups and headed out for about a mile of warming up.
As I jogged around the park, I couldn't help but appreciate the beauty of the day. I actually just stood and stared at one of the lakes for a while. It really couldn't have been a more perfect atmosphere for what we were doing.
This year's race featured "chip timing," but really it was just a chip finish. I have no idea where the start line was, or how far I ran before I crossed it. I estimated, and my finish time is based on that (the official finish time doesn't take the slightly delayed start into account). I went out hard; my intention was to set a pace of 5:20/km. My dream was to run sub-50:00, which would require a 5:00/km pace.
I did well for the first few kilometers, but my body was sending me early warning signs; the pace was not sustainable. After 3 or 4 kilometers, I was starting to be passed back by some of the people I had run by earlier. One of my cycling buddies caught me at around the 6k mark, but couldn't sustain my pace through the dirt section (most of kilometer 6 is run on an unpaved road in the park). I didn't exactly drop her, though; she stayed just about 20 yards behind me for the rest of the race, apparently. Kilometer 6 was also measured long; my split for that one was 6 something, while my 7k split was under 5.
I started trying to accelerate at 8k, then picked it up a little more at 9k. I was passing a few people, at that point. But I had run myself into a dangerous situation, from a competitive vantage point, because I wasn't with any significant group. There was a group of ladies just a little bit too far ahead to catch with a 500m surge, and no one close enough behind me to pose any threat. By that point, I was just sort of cruising to the finish in an (official) time of 54:12, an average pace of 8:43. The time on my watch was 53:44. But, like I said before, I 100% guessed as to the location of the start line. Last year's time was 54:07, so I'm in a comparable place this year. Which I'm not necessarily happy about. I mean, I was happy with last year's time; sub-9:00 pace for a 10k? Alright! But this year, I want to be better. And I wasn't, at least not significantly.
Thing is, I feel like I'm in better run shape. I've been running better. I ran a 2:02 1/2 marathon in January; that's excruciatingly close to that 2-hour mark! I'm stronger and faster than I was a year ago, and I have the numbers to prove it. I think there were two main elements that held me back at the Sun Run.
The first is that my legs were dead. I had done a track workout the week before (a recovery week, mind you) in my Vibrams. It felt goo...