What was I thinking, after not running very much since April??? Well, I have to say it’s all Carl Grace’s fault! Sorry Carl but it’s true. I had not really been training for anything since Boston in April, and really I didn’t train all that much for that but really just tried to maintain since NYC in Nov 2009. But a few months before the American Tobacco Trail (ATT) 10 miler Carl emailed a few RTR folks to see if anyone was running the ATT 10 miler. I had wanted to run it at some point since I volunteered at it the year before. So since I hadn’t picked any fall race to motivate me to run, I thought that may be a good one. I heard it filled quickly sometimes so I decided to register early. I think that Carl ended up not coming out from SF for that race but since I was signed up I was committed at that point. I was doing some 10 mile runs on the weekends but as the race got closer I really had cut back on that and also my runs during the week. I was busy with work and other things and wasn’t as focused on running. Then suddenly the race sort of snuck up on me! I thought about drop out and not running it, but decided I could probably run the 10 miles since it was a flat course.
Until the morning of the race I really hadn’t looked much into where the parking was which is unusual for me. I did pick up my race packet the day before at Inside Out Sports in Cary. In the morning I decided to take the risk and try to park in the White Oak Church parking lot which was supposed to have limited parking. I headed out a bit early in hopes that it wouldn’t be full yet since I didn’t want to have to take a shuttle from the parking at Thomas Brooks Park which was a few miles away. I like to have my warm clothes nearby at the finish of a race. I was lucky and got a spot. I then jogged over to the race finish area to pick up my chip and of course use the port a potties a few times. I then asked around about where the start was since I had never run the race before. The women had a separate start from the men, which I thought was cool. It was 10 minutes ahead of the men.
I tried to get near the front of the starting line since awards are often by gun and not chip time. Not that I expected an award but still it’s good to be well positioned just in case! This was my first real local race in the “masters” category. I wasn’t sure what the competition was in that group for this race but knew that another race, the Run for Healthier Babies, was being held in Morrisville that same day. Since that race it part of the Second Empire Series I suspected that many speedy folks would be there. I had run that race and the series last year and it was a great race.
By the time the women started it was getting a bit warmer so I took off my long sleeve shirt and decided to run in shorts and a tshirt. It was a bit brisk but I knew I’d warm up and would rather be a bit cold than too warm for a race. It was also my first race and probably longest distance with my Saucony Kinvaras. I was hoping they’d hold up to the 10 miles and not result in any unusual soreness or injuries. As the women took off, I was positioned pretty far in the front and could see the leader for the first quarter mile or so, which meant I was probably running way too fast! I did the first mile super fast but felt pretty good so didn’t consciously slow it down too much but instead decided to let that happen gradually. Mile 2 also felt pretty good. It was at mile 3 that I wished I was running the other race that day, the Run for Healthier Babies 5K. I was concerned that I was feeling tired so early in the race. However by mile 4 I felt better after a bit of Gatorade. I picked the pace back up a bit in miles 4 and 5 and used a Hammer gel around that point as well, which probably helped. During much of the race I could see but never catch a woman who I had only known from a prior race as the 60 year old woman who kicked my butt. She had run the Tobacco Trail half marathon and was running the same pace as I was for much of that race. I knew she was older but mainly due to her silver/white hair, because her body was way more fit that mine and most other women in the race. But in the last 3 miles she took off and finished ahead of me. I later found out that she was 60 years old. Wow, hope I can do that at 60! And there she was again, this time ahead of me from about mile 1 onward. I knew this time however that she was pretty speedy and I decided I would not focus on her but focus on my time. I could see her for much of the race so wasn’t too far behind but just far enough that she was always out of my reach.
It felt pretty good to reach the turnaround at just over mile 5. I was tired already and had a long way to go, but could see that there weren’t that many women ahead of me and I don’t believe that any men had passed me by that point (remember they started around 10 minutes later). I had passed one or two women leading up to the turn around. Mile 6 wasn’t too terrible but by mile 7 to 8 my calves and feet started to feel crampy, much like the issues I had in both recent marathons that caused me to stop dead in my tracks for a few seconds. I decided that I would try mind over matter and just decide that the cramps would not be that bad or cause me to stop. A few times I thought for sure they would win, but somehow I kept it from fully surfacing and kept plugging along. By mile 8 and 9 that was really what I was doing. I had really slowed down a lot by that point so really was just trying to make it to the finish. Some men passed me during the second half of the race but not a large number. The women were quite spread out by this time and so the now 61 year old woman was ahead of me and no one was close enough behind to worry about. It stayed that way, except for the men catching up, for the rest of the race. The last mile felt like it was a real struggle and up hill which is all relative I guess on the flat ATT. I was very happy to finally see the finish line and tried to give it my all to get to the end before the cramps in my legs/feet stopped me. I was happy to stop and walk and tried to walk off the cramps as I went to the car to get my change of clothes.
I knew my time of 1:12:28 was close to my PR time but wasn’t sure if it was a PR. Turns out it wasn’t, I had run Anna’s Angels, which was a hillier course, faster in 1:11:44. Still, it was a pretty good time, with an average pace of 7:15. I also wasn’t sure what place I came in but was sure I’d placed in the master’s category or at least in my age group. Once the results were posted I found out I was 3rd masters woman overall which was nice for my first real local race in that category. No medal or trophy to remember the race, only the age group winners got those (I have to admit I would have liked one) but a Wachovia gift card for $50 and an IOS one for $30 was really nice. I got to spend some time with a few RTR folks after the race while waiting for the awards and then headed home to start the rest of the weekend. Not sure what the next race is, I was considering the City of Oaks half but decided after this race that it would need to wait until next year since it was only 2 weeks away and I didn’t feel quite ready for a race of that distance. Guess I better figure out what’s next so I can get motivated to step up the running again! Thanks to Carl for getting me to sign up for this race, I would never have run it if I hadn’t signed up for it so far ahead and then I wouldn’t have placed in my first race in the master’s category!
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