10K (6.2 Miles) Race Report

My wife is away in New Mexico visiting family so I was all by my lonesome this morning. The race was the Monster Mask 5k/10k at the Sam Houston Race Park. It is about 25 minutes from the house. For breakfast I had a whole wheat bagel with Peanut Butter and a 100 calorie muscle milk I left around 6 am and stopped for some coffee at a gas station and then was on my way.

The temperature when I left the house was 47 degrees. That is downright cold to us Texans so I layered a couple of shirts and a jacket but still wore shorts. I figured I could drop the clothes off at my car before the race started. I got there and the packet pickup was nice and smooth.

The 5k was first at 7:30 and then the 10k at 8:15. I tried to get into the 5k but it was too late and they wouldn't let me do it. So, I just did an easy warm up run while the 5k was going on.

At about 5 minutes after 8am we started lining up for the 10k. I wasn't sure where to line up so I started in the middle of the pack. This was probably a mistake because it took me over a minute to even get to the start line. I was not sure if the time started at the gun or when I crossed the start line. Luckily I had on my Garmin so I started the time when I hit the start line. Now I realized I was actually a lot faster than I thought because I was bobbing and weaving around all the people who started in front of me. After a mile I looked down at my Garmin and saw I did the first mile in 7:50. Not bad considering all the lateral running I was doing passing people!

The 2nd and 3rd mile had us swing back around to the start line and then run under a road and through an underground tunnel and then loop around a lake. We did this twice. Around mile 5 I was feeling a little uncomfortable and my heart rate was at 185 bpm! If this was a training run I would have backed off some but since this was a race I decided to push it! My last mile split was 7:25!

Overall I finished the 6.2 miles in 46:31. This is a pace of around 7:30/mile. Both of these are personal records for me and I was very pleased with my results. The official times or results have not been posted on the website yet but I think I did pretty well overall and in my age group. I passed a ton of people and I was only passed one time the entire race! According to the website there were 920 people registered. I think that included 5k only runners too so I am not sure how many were in the 10k. I will let you know when the results are posted!

Tomorrow morning I am planning on running 15 miles. I feel pretty good now and with the extra hour of sleep (turn back your clocks!) I should be okay. If I wake up tomorrow and feel beat I might postpone the 15 miler!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

*** Update ***

Results are in and I finished 37/320 overall and 9th in my AG. My chip time was 46:20! Not sure how many were in my AG, hopefully that will be updated soon!