race report: jones group realtors 10 mile road race

Distance: 10 miles
Time: 1:32:03
Pace: 9:13/mile
Overall: 503/596
F 20-39: 65/86

I went to Amherst, MA with three other CRCers to run this race today. The course was brutal! Major hills came at mile 3 and mile 9 with a bunch scattered in between, but oddly enough I was able to run faster splits around the mile 9 hills than I was on the "flatter" middle parts of the course. That middle part included iced-over dirt roads whose slipperyness effectively negated their lack of elevation.

By the time I got to mile 6, freezing rain started to pour down from the skies. I cursed my lack of foresight in forgoing a light windbreaker and sped up just so I could get back inside faster.
I had promised myself that if I PRed in this race, I would buy a Lululemon outfit. After my 10:00 and 10:03 miles, I pretty much gave up hope of a PR and resigned myself to trying again at the New Bedford half marathon in March. Once I hit mile 7, I did calculations in my head and realized that the PR was still possible if I finished the last three miles at 9:00/mile pace, but also wondered if the upcoming evil hills would cause more 10:00 miles. The urge to pass other people became stronger, especially given that I was at the back of the pack anyway. When the next two miles went by under 9:00/mile pace, I picked up the pace even more, visions of the Lululemon store dancing in my rain-drenched head. Thank goodness the race ended on a downhill with cheering volunteers shaking cowbells--I booked it in so hard I could barely breathe, beating my previous PR of 1:33:39 by over a minute.

Split times:
1. 8:53
2. 8:35
3. 10:00
4. 10:03
5. 9:30
6. 9:40
7. 8:45
8. 9:06
9. 8:49
10. 8:39

When I looked up the results online and saw how badly I'd placed, my elation at achieving a PR quickly fell flat when considered against that of 502 much faster runners. At the beginning of the race I'd felt out of place in my pink "I run like a girl" hoodie among the hordes of folks wearing jackets and singlets from GBTC, CMS, Merrimack Valley Striders, Goon Squad Runners, and Sugarloaf Mountain Athletic Club. I worried that I'd get so far behind that I'd end up lost in the Amherst woods. That did not end up happening, but 503/596 sure felt far behind.

Looking at the race results, I noticed that only 36 out of the 596 people had run slower than 10:00/mile. That's usually not the case for more popular Boston or D.C. road races. The pervasiveness of track club jackets *did* accurately reflect the speediness of the crowd today, which now makes sense given the month (February), the distance (10 miles), the weather (freezing rain followed by snow) and the travel time from Boston (two hours). This was not quite the Tufts Women's 10K or Run to Remember in terms of proportion of recreational runners!

I'm happy with this year in terms of running--10K and 10 miler PRs, and the possibility of a half marathon one in March (time to beat: 2:17:16). I feel a helluva lot stronger than I did in 2005 and 2006, both physically and mentally. In addition to getting faster, I'm no longer dependent on an ipod for long runs and I'm now psyched to go on runs with other people instead of sticking only to my favorite treadmill at the gym. I'm looking forward to the rest of this year.