Race Report: Gasparilla Island 10K

GASPARILLA ISLAND 10k

October 3, 2010

A shiny, new pencil holder!

I had the race of my year this past Sunday.


All of my post-it notes and psychological mambo jambo must have worked because I was ready when I toed the line at the Gasparilla 10k.


PRE-RACE MEAL- 2 hours before race start
Whole wheat bagel with light cream cheese (standard pre-race breakfast)
Hot tea with honey (also standard)


PRE-RACE WARM-UP- 20 minutes before race start
Lately I've noticed that my best training runs have followed my C25K group training clinics.  Knowing this, I decided to warm-up like a clinic.  I ran for 90 seconds, walked for 60 seconds, ran for 90 seconds, walked for 60 seconds, repeat, repeat.  After the last walk break, I did 3 or 4 strides and then walked over to the car to stretch.  A few king pigeons and downward dogs later and I was off to the start line.


TEMPS
I am notorious about logging weather information along with my training/race stats.  I use the wunderground.com history link for the location and will typically pick a time that is smack dab in the middle of my run.  So, weather conditions for this race were 70F, 67.7F dew point, 76F heat index and winds 3-6mph from the North.  So much cooler than what is typical for this time of year.  Far from ideal mind you, but better than expected.


THE START
As I mentioned in my previous post, the 10k race goes off with the 5k race.  Thank goodness the race directors provided us with different colored bibs.  I was wearing a yellow 10k bib and this ensured that I was not likely to chase someone wearing a white 5k bib.   Our local running club, the Zoomers, was well represented.  Scott and I are new to the Zoomers organization, so while I was at the start line I took some time to spot-out people wearing purple Zoomers tanks.  The Speedsters group from Ft. Myers was out in full force as well.  They are all fantastic runners and super positive people.  I hope to do some training with both groups after tri season is over.


The race director moved all of the speedy people up to the front of the start line and asked the rest of us to move in behind them.  I started about 4-5 rows back from the front.  Perfect for me.   Right before the start of the race I spotted a Facebook friend, R, who also runs with the Zoomers & Speedsters.  I hadn't yet met her in person, but I knew that she had done the Run 4 A Reason 5K in August and that we ran at very similar speeds, with her being just a wee bit faster.  She was wearing a yellow bib like I was.


Before the gun went off, I kept saying to myself over and over again... pace, pace, pace.  I had even adjusted my iPod to play... wait for it... Eye in the Sky by The Alan Parsons Project as the first song, just so I wouldn't go out too fast!  I heard a few 5k racers near me talking about how they hoped to average an 8:15 pace, so I thought to myself, "hmm... maybe I'll stay near them for the first mile."


MILE 1
The most important mile!  The gun went off and my plan was put into action.  I watched R zoom ahead, while I tried to hold back.  The "8:15" girls also zoomed ahead.  I looked down at my Garmin: 7:30 pace!  Too fast.  I immediately backed it off, I let people pass me.  Yellow bibs went by, white bibs went by, Alan Parsons Project was buzzing in my ear. I was running my own race.  


I was able to adjust my pace to about a 7:50-7:55, but was not able to go any slower than that (the plan had been to run 8:10 for mile 1).  I felt very comfortable.  Soon after mile 0.5, I passed the "8:15 girls" who were now struggling and started reeling in yellow and white bibs.  I could see R about 30 seconds ahead of me.  There were many other women up ahead too, but I didn't know if they were 5k or 10k runners.


Mile 1: 7:52


MILES 2-4
Soon after the 1.5 mile mark we parted ways with the 5k runners and hit the canal bridge.  I passed a 10k female runner about 0.1 of a mile before the bridge and then passed two younger dudes on the upside.  I always feel badly when I pass a guy.  I don't know why, I shouldn't.  They pass me all the time.


After the bridge I hit the first of 3 cul-du-sac streets.  This was also my first opportunity to see where I was in relation to the other women in the race.  I was 2nd.  R was the only woman in front of me.  I now also knew that I had at least 10 seconds on the woman behind me.  I found myself looking at the faces of all of the other women.  Were they breathing hard?  Had they gone out too fast?  Did they look comfy?  I've never done this before.


After the first cul-du-sac, I found myself on the heels of a male runner.  He was running my pace.  I couldn't pass him and he wasn't gaining any ground on me, so I decided to use him.  There was a light wind blowing from the North on the outbound leg of the race, so now and then I would dip in behind him to catch a bit of his draft.  I never stayed long because I didn't want to bug him (he wasn't wearing an iPod, so I knew he could hear me behind him).  I ran with him for the rest of the race.  At spots he would pull ahead of me and then I would pull slightly ahead of him, but we couldn't get rid of each other.


Miles 2, 3 and 4 were very solid.  The pace felt hard, but not 5k hard.  My legs felt great.  My breathing was in check.  Some people around me were really pushing air big-time, but I was not.  I recall marveling about how good I actually felt.  After blowing up during my last 5k and sprint tri, feeling confident and comfortable was quite welcome.  


There was a cul-du-sac at miles 2, 3 and 4 (approx).  With each approach, I could see that I was slowly reeling in R, who was indeed the only female 10k racer in front of me.  By the time I went around the third cul-du-sac I had closed the gap between us to about 15 seconds and we appeared to be holding the same pace.  For a moment I thought about just going for it, but I decided not to.  Fifteen seconds is a lot of time in a running race (although Macca made it look very easy yesterday).  I was there to race my race and I was doing surprisingly well at all.  I was also solidly ahead of the closest woman behind me (about 2 minutes when all was said and done).  There was no need to try catch R and it was unlikely that she was going to implode or that I was going to blow-up and lose 2nd to whomever was fairly far behind me.  I decided to remain content with how I was racing.  I definitely ran miles 2 and 3 too fast, but thankfully, not fast enough to blow-up.


Mile 2: 7:32
Mile 3: 7:25 (ohhh, someone needs to race a 5k soon)
Mile 4: 7:39


MILE 5
Mile 5 brought with it the canal bridge (again) and I was happy to see it.  Folks who deal with hills and changes in terrain probably don't really think about this, but let me tell ya, it is mind numbing to run on flats all of the time.  I usually try to include an over/back run over the Peace River Bridge at least once a week just to change things up.  Over time, I have learned how to run hills (aka- Florida bridges) and stay pretty consistent with my pacing.  I slow a bit on the way up and speed up a bit on the way down.  I had to learn how to run downhill in order to do this.  Most folks seem to "break" when they run downhill.  I've taught myself to lean forward and let gravity carry me down.  It's a weird feeling, but it works.  Anyway, the backside of the little canal bridge gave me a boost of confidence as the downhill allowed me to get closer to a few of the guys running in front of me.


At one point during mile 5, I had a small lapse in concentration (mind numbing flats) and fell off my pace slightly.  I quickly got my mind back into the game and reminded myself to turn my feet over.  If there is one thing I have, it's quick turnover.  So, even when my legs are getting tired and my stride seems to be shortening, if I can just tell my brain to turn over my legs, I'm golden.


Mile 5: 7:41


THE FINISH
The final mile is a straight-shoot down a concrete sidewalk.  I finally passed one of the men in front of me and my "pacer" tried to encourage me to pass him.  I said to him, "I'm trying, dude." I really wasn't trying.  I was pretty happy with what I was doing and with still over a mile left to go in the race, there was plenty of time for me to blow-up if I didn't continue to race smart.


Mile 6:  7:41 (consistent and right where I should have been all along)


The run to the finish was terrific.  I had juice left in the tank so I kicked hard!  I ran as fast as I could toward the clock and was in awe of what I saw.  All of the time that I was checking my pace on the course, I never looked at the elapsed time.  I was "hoping" to come in around 49 minutes, but would have been pleased with anything sub-50.  To see 47:XX on the clock as I was racing towards the finish line... well, OMG!


I tore through the finish line with everything that I had and hit a 5:35 pace somewhere along the way.  When I crossed over the line, I let out a very loud, "Wooooo!!!!"  Elated! 


Finish time: 47:53 (a 10k PR by more than 6 minutes)


I finished the race as 2nd female overall (14 seconds behind R) and won my AG.  Don't get overly excited folks, this was a small race with only 72 10k racers.  Anyway, the very best thing that came out of this race was that I learned how to control my pace.  I obviously still have some work to do (as seen in my mile 2 & 3 splits), but I'm getting there.  This is a huge step in the right direction for me and it was a solid confidence booster.  I felt great after the race.  I raced my race and achieved my goal (and then some) because I played it smart.


TRAINING UPDATE
Beach2Battleship HIM peak week #1 is ovah!  I've been trying very hard to focus on this race, but all I can think about is February's marathon.  I'm just so darn excited!  This past June I decided that I was going to sloooowly ramp up my mileage to a base of 30 miles per week.  For the past 3 years, I've been averaging only between 15 to 21 mpw (and a wee bit higher before a 70.3).  I knew that at some point I would be attempting to combine B2B training and marathon prep, so I decided that I was going to build my base early to reduce the chance of injury.  So, for the past 4 months I've been building to 30.  I spent quite a few weeks at 22-23 mpw, then backed off for a week.  Next, I moved to 25-26 mpw and then again, took a recovery week.  Eventually I hung out for two weeks at 28 mpw.  Last week I backed off the mileage just a bit before the 10k.  This past week I finally hit 30 mpw!  I'm injury free (knock on wood) and feel much better about the big marathon build that is going to take place in December/January.  I have decided to hang out at 30 mpw until the B2B taper.  I will resume my build at the end of November.


I should note that have not gone about collecting miles via long runs.  Rather, I started by just adding in another day of running.  A short 3-miler worked perfectly.  Eventually I started tacking on an extra mile to one of my mid-week runs.  Essentially, my goal was to run more by building out instead of up.  Of course, I've included long runs as well (B2B is on the horizon), but my longest long run has only been a 13.1 training run... and that was just completed yesterday.


This morning I did a recovery run on grass.  I am pretty much a 100% asphalt and concrete runner.  We have no running trails around here.  We do have soccer fields and I will probably become quite familiar with them later on this year, but up until this morning, I had never done a grass run.  Yeah.  What a mess.  My poor pink Kinvaras-- used and abused b/c I have no "off road" shoes.  I can't believe I kicked up all of this mess.  Seriously, I was on grass-- no obvious dirt.  I'm a solid mid-foot striker, so no heel planting.  I literally just kicked this gunk up onto the back of my legs.

I was wondering why the back of my leg was itching

ETA: I have no idea why the spacing in this blog post is not cooperating.  Blogger is starting to really PMO with this problem.  I apologize for the rather large breaks between paragraphs.