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Saturday, February 28, 2015

Tough Hilly 10K!

Based on my last couple 5K races, I had anticipated running this 10K in the 57-58 minute range. That is what my running calculator said I should be able to do. Now this race is in an area north east of Las Cruces metro, and as I wound my way to the venue, I noticed all these orange cones in the road, and quickly became aware of how hilly everything around me was. When I was warming up and looking around, I knew this was going to be all hills, and not short easy ones, but long steep ones. The weather at the start was 43 degrees, but it was a full sun day. I knew that to hit my time goal, I had to run around 5:50 per kilometer pace or better, so I kept my eyes on the garmin. The first mile and a half was straight up hill, and I surprised myself by being able to comfortably hold 5:55 pace. The next mile was kind of rolling, but not particularly steep. Then, on a side street, we had a really steep climb. By the top, we were at 6K on the garmin, but my pace had slowed to 5:59. We then did a long downhill, but turned for a one mile loop that took me right back on that same side street up the same damn hill. By 8K I started asking myself why I chose the 10K vs the 5K. The last two kilometers were thankfully all down hill into a flat quarter mile turn thru the finishing chute. I made up a lot of time on that downhill and finished in 57:48 or 5:46 per kilometer. I was extremely happy with my time on such a difficult course and it was good enough for 2nd in the 60 to not dead age group. I am super sore in my lower back and knees, and am betting I will be damn sore over the next few days. 10K is definitely the longest race distance I want to run anymore. Felt like I was out there forever. Has me rethinking that mountainous 10K next saturday. There are no age groups so I could run it slower, but I may hold off for a 5K race the following weekend.......

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