Monday morning I drove to Arlington, TX to run the American Heroes 10K race. There just aren’t that many 10K races around to enter so I have to pick the ones I can run and go with them. This made for an interesting weekend with the double races but I think I came out alright.

The race setup was nice, it was fully chip timed from start to finish, the only thing I didn’t care for was the fact that both the 5K and the 10K started and finished at the same place at the same time which meant that at the start I was running with guys who were gunning for a 5K PR and I was finishing with the 40 minute 5K crowds. This means that the starters will drag you along for a fast starting pace and the finishers will slow you down as you try to zip by them. Certainly not a good combination. Another thing that bummed me out was the fact that this race had a great 1 mile fun run/walk unlike the one my family ended up doing Saturday. I really wish they had done this race instead.

Weather was hot and humid. We started out at 80 degrees and 70% humidity. We finished in the same conditions with some wind thrown in for good measure. It was not PR weather to say the least.

The race took place in Arlington, TX right by the Texas Rangers Ballpark, Six Flags over Texas amusement park and the brand spanking new Dallas Cowboy’s stadium. So the venue was nice with a lot of eye candy.

The start corral was done nicely, they had a separate place for the non-chip timed walkers and the chip timed runners. I started from the front as usual and I was talking with a lady about my goal pace which was going to be 6:10 for the entire race. Little did I know…

Once the gun went after a 3-2-1 countdown, 20 seconds of fiddling with the gun and then finally the old lady firing in the air the race was on. I had to hold myself back not to try to stick with the 5K lead pack. I recognized some familiar faces and I even had time and energy to say hi to them while running the first quarter mile. My plan of slowing it down kind of worked, I clocked a 6:00 even pace for the first half mile and 6:09 for the second half.

First mile: 6:04

After the first mile we got into our first slight climb and I started to feel that a 6:10 was going to be awfully difficult. We split off from the 5K pack and I found myself motoring in 5th place overall.

Second mile: 6:13

So far so good. Still within target but then we hit an overpass that went above I-30 and we caught up with the sole wheelchair racer on the course. Once you lose momentum it’s pretty tough to push that wheelchair up the hill. There is no coasting in a wheelchair uphill. My pace dropped as low as 7:30 on the climb but I managed to recover somewhat after the climb and got back in the groove again. A long stretch of straight running was coming and I finally caught up with the 4th place runner. He gave me a “go ahead” as I ran by him, he did not look too good.

Third Mile: 6:26

At this point I knew that any hopes of breaking 39 were dwindling fast and based on how I felt I thought a 40 minute run would be also in strong jeopardy. I kept inching up on the 3rd place guy, slowly but surely. At this point I picked a new goal; instead of trying to break 39, which I knew wasn’t going to happen, I tried to get on the overall podium. Just before the turnaround point I passed the 3rd place guy and I saw the first and second place runners pass us by on the way back. The first place guy looked rock solid and really far out. The second place guy looked like he wasn’t all that hot and he was younger kid, under 18. After the turn I thought this is where I should start pushing it and shoot for that negative split. I stepped on it and if felt like we were cruising downhill a bit and things felt OK. I also received crowd support from the slower runners who were still on the out part of the course as I was coming back. It felt pretty good. I kept looking back to see how far the 4th place guy was, I did not want to give up 3rd place.

Fourth Mile: 6:24

We had to cross the interstate again which meant one more climb over the bridge. As I got to the top I saw the second place guy in front of me grabbing water from the water station and walking a bit. I thought I had a chance of catching him but he started running again. At 4.5 miles we turned away from the outgoing course which still had plenty of people running/walking and went for what I’d call the place that separated men from the boys.

It was a quarter mile 4% incline through a parking lot that almost killed me. I was so ready to throw in the towel by the time I hit the top it’s not even funny. I thought my 3rd place was gone and there was no way I could hold onto it. But then I looked back and I actually saw that the distance between me and the 4th place guy actually increased. I wasn’t the only one who was suffering on the hill, it was everyone else too. My pace slowed to 8:00 by the time I hit the top.

The guy in front of me hit up the water station at the top again, then stopped, then started running again.

Fifth Mile: 6:40

At this point I didn’t know how things were going to shake out. My new goal was just to finish the race. Forget PRs, forget placing, forget about anything else. Just finish the damn race. I kept looking at the Ballpark and that thing was so friggin’ huge yet it was so friggin’ far.

At this point the 5K and 10K races merged together again and I was in a river of 40 minute 5K walkers. I had to stay outside of the cones so I could get past them with their iPods blasting and them not paying any kind of attention to anything else around them. The 2nd place guy slowed down significantly along with me so I still kept him in sight and at this point I felt that I was actually inching up on him even though I felt we came to a screeching halt in terms of pace. I was right about the pace. When you’re passing people that are on the 14 minute/mile pace a 7 minute/mile will feel downright speedy. But in reality our pace was cooked and done.

Sixth Mile: 6:39

Once I had the finish in sight and I felt confident that I could kick it I went for it. My rabbit was done, he was so far gone that when I kicked it he didn’t even lift a finger. After the race he told me he threw up twice during the race and he needs to work more on his pre-race diet. I didn’t see him barf but he still posted an impressive time and gave me a tough time to beat him even with the GI issues he’s been having. I saw the clock above the finish line just turning over 40 minutes which made me feel really sad in terms of time but I kept on kicking it strong until the very end. Once I stopped my watch it read 39:59 but I knew that it had at least 20 seconds extra on it due to the lame start with the old lady who failed to work the starting pistol right.

Last 0.2 mile: 1:09 (5:36/mile)

Official time: 39:35

I finished 2nd overall and since the winner took the overall win I also won my age group once he was out of the picture. If I could have done anything different it probably would have been towards the end. I think I got influenced and caught up in other people’s pace around me which caused me to slow down instead of trying to push it. I’m not saying I had anything left in the tank but I think I could have done a bit better had I had a faster rabbit to chase at the end.

Considering the hot weather and the brutal hill in mile 5 I think I did pretty good. This was certainly not a PR course for me but my race time is still a good indicator of what to expect in my future training for longer distances. It would have been nice to get a sub 39 10K to go with my 18:13 5K this season but that will just have to wait until next fall as I am done with the shorter distances, at least for now.

When I manually mapped the course on mapmyrun.com it became clear where the discrepancy came from. Whoever mapped the course mapped it on-line and got 6.19 miles for the distance which is a lot closer to the 10k than the actual distance we ran. The problem is that auto routing when it’s set to follow roads will pick the middle of the road for the distance. If a race is mostly runs on long segments of straight roads it is not a big problem. But this particular run ran through some winding and turning residential roads that were long stretches of curved roads. On these sections the distance ran was significantly lower than the distance estimated as we all ran on the shortest line at the inside edge of the turns. This is why you have to actually ride the course with a calibrated bicycle on the shortest path to get it certified. This course was not certified so I can’t really say much about it, it was close enough.

The race was the 29th Azle Lake Run 10K. It’s a small race with few participants, this year just shy of 50 runners in the 10K, 11 runners in the half marathon (new event) and a bit over 100 in the 5K (new event).

I had several goals for the race:

1. Finish in the top three for my age group. Considering that last year there were only 39 finishers I figured it would be an attainable goal.
2. Finish under 40 minutes. I ran 40:55 a month ago on a much hillier course so I thought I had a pretty good chance at breaking 40:00 this time. It would have been a first.
3. Run downhill smart and fast. I’ve been struggling with the downhill segments before by not letting loose and losing a lot of energy. I really wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to make that mistake this time.
4. Don’t go out too fast, shoot for even splits. So far on every single race I have ran I ended up with positive splits. I fade towards the end and I have a hard time keeping my pace up.

Weather was pretty good for the day, considering it’s May in Texas. It was around 60 degrees, full overcast with a pretty good amount of humidity but luckily no wind.

Start was pretty uneventful; there is really not a huge crowd when you only have about 60 runners starting at the same time. The Half Marathon and the 10K started together while the 5K started 15 minutes later. There were some pretty solid half marathon runners and some pretty fast paced 10K runners at the beginning. Start was also downhill for the most part so pace was pretty fast.

First mile was 5:58.

By the second mile I finally slowed down and got into a groove where I could run my own pace. There was one guy breathing down my neck that was a bit annoying and eventually he passed me by which I didn’t mind as I finally got to run my own pace. My chaser just became my rabbit.

Second mile was 6:13.

During the third mile I started seeing several younger guys in front of me who clearly went out too fast early on as they were fading pretty badly. I started to reel them in slowly but surely. It was actually a lot of fun to pick them off one by one as me and my rabbit passed them by.

Third mile was 6:23.

At mile 4 the half marathon and the 10K split up. My sole rabbit, “Mr. wheezing guy”, went towards the half and I took the right turn onto some crappier quality residential road. All of a sudden I found myself alone with no one in sight. It was a long stretch of road with a pretty good climb and not one person in front of me. This is where I really started to feel the pain and the difficulty of running by myself.

Mile 4 was 6:24.

Up until this point my pace was all alive and well and I felt pretty good about my run. I was a bit concerned that I might have gone out a bit too fast early on and I was wondering what kind of toll it would take on me. I had two more steeper climbs ahead of me and my pace showed it. Running with no other runners in front of me I took a quick glance back and there was only one guy in my vicinity but he was a good 45 seconds back. He was one of the guys I already passed so I knew that there was no way I was going to give 45 seconds back on the last mile and a half. I also asked one of the marshals at the turn how many were in front of me and she said there were 3. I was bummed out that I was going to miss the podium finish in the overall. None of the 3 was in sight, I wasn’t even close.

Mile 5 was 6:29, the first split above my target pace.

During the last mile we ran into the 25 minute finishers of the 5K race. Their race started 15 minutes after ours but ended at the same finish. It was a bit difficult to pass them at times and I really don’t think it has helped my pace to be surrounded with all these “slow runners”. A girl in front of me was asking someone how much further the finish was. I glanced at my watch and I saw we had 0.4 miles to go. As I passed her I told her that it’s 0.4 miles to go. I wasn’t ready to start my final kick at this point I thought I’d wait until the 0.2 mark to really go for it.

Mile 6 was 6:30.

We took our final turn towards the high school track where, based on the map, I assumed we’d have a half a lap around the track to the finish. I started picking up my pace and as I looked up there it was; the finish line that is. I was a bit confused as I didn’t realize it was going to be this close. There was no track in sight and the finish was right there in front of me. I did a 5:00/mile sprint at the end until the finish and stopped my watch.

After talking with the other guys we concluded that the course was short and I probably didn’t do as well as I thought. My monitor indicated an average pace of 6:25 but that included 30 or so seconds of rest after the finish so I had to wait for the official time. I knew I beat 40 minutes just simply based on pace but I didn’t know by how much.

Official finish time was 38:08, a new PR. If I extrapolate it up to the correct distance it would be 39:11 6:18/mile pace which is still a new PR and under 40 minutes. Actually I think I could have kept up the 5:00-5:30 pace for the missing 0.15 miles so it would have been probably a tiny bit better than that.

As they told me on the course, I finished 4th overall and I got 2nd in my age group, there was a 32 year old guy who finished 3rd with 35:31. He was over 2.5 minutes faster than me, there was no way I could have beat him. Not this time at least.

So how did I do in terms of goals? I did finish in the top three for my age group which I’m pretty happy about. I love to leave the races with some hardware.

I also beat my goal of 40 minutes. If you look at the pure time I beat it by a long shot. If you consider that the course was short I still beat it by a decent amount and I totally killed my 40:55 from a month ago.

If you look at my pace graph I almost recovered all the speed lost on the inclines on the declines. I felt really good and really fast on the down slopes. Every single one of them were under 6:00 pace. I feel a lot more confident on the downhill now than ever before.

As for my last goal of getting to negative splits, well that didn’t happen. I went out a bit too fast, the second half had some climbs, there was a lot of lonely running and finishing with the 7:30/mile 5K crowd did not help much. But it is what it is and that elusive negative split is still out there. One of these days I’ll reel it in!

The race I ran was the 13th annual Fort Worth Zoo Run 10K. I have looked at previous years race results and based on my predicted time I was hoping for a top 3 finish in my age group and I was secretly hoping to break the 40 minute mark. So how did I do? I did fine.

The race started at 7:00, bright and early. This race is predominantly a 5K race, the 10K distance has only been added in the past several years. This meant that the 10K was the first race in the morning with just under 800 finishers while the 5K race had close to 2,000 runners. The weather was a bit warm at 63 degrees and it was cloudy with rain about to hit but we got spared and only the 5K racers got dumped by the rain.

The start was pretty fast at 6:07 and 6:18 for the first two 500m splits. The third split was still a 6:23 so the pace was certainly very fast for me even though I concentrated on keeping it easy, not going out too fast and letting the leader pack go. I clearly need more work on not going out too fast at the beginning.

By the 3rd km we were hitting some pretty good hills and my pace slowed down to slower than 7 minute miles on average and I started getting really worried about not hitting my target time or finishing in the top 3. I could worry all i wanted but my legs were just not getting any faster. My 5K split was actually 20:02 so I was still right on target to hit my goal as long as I could finish my race strong.

But the second half had even more hills and I was falling apart big time. I have tried to hold on but every step was harder than the last one. I wasn’t sure if I could even finish at this point, let alone meet my target. At one point I was contemplating walking and never running ever again. My legs felt like lead.

I event attempted to use one of the water stations at the 4 mile mark but my attempt ended in failure. I picked up the water cup, lifted it to my mouth, poured some of the water in my mouth and I could not swallow it. I ended up spitting it out and that was the last attempt at getting water. It was only a 10K so getting water during the race is unnecessary especially in the weather conditions we were running in but I figured since I’ll be having longer and longer races, this practice run was a good place to try to work on getting water. Well I failed. I’ll need to work on getting water into my body more at a later time.

There was a 48 year old guy who was passing me at the beginning then during a long straight in the middle I passed him back. Coming down the final downhill he passed me again. I am just not fast enough on the downhill. I’m too worried about letting myself go and really picking up the pace downhill. I will really need to work on it more.

The other problem I had was that I got disoriented and I thought we had much more left to go than we actually did. It wasn’t until we took the final turn and I saw the finish line that I started my final kick. Had I realized we were that close I would have started on it a good bit sooner.

Regardless of my sucking on the water station and the downhills I still managed to get a 40:55 in bettering my previous PR by almost 5 minutes from 1.5 month ago. I finished 22nd out of the 793 and got 3rd in my age group. I’m pretty happy with my result and I certainly know what I need to work on before my next race.

I have two more 10Ks coming up in this race season before I switch gears and start working on the longer races. I hope I’ll get two new PRs between the two races. And I know that I need to work on:

• not going out too fast early (I’m getting better at it)
• running downhill fast
• drinking water while running

The race was scheduled for 7:30 AM which is mighty early for me. I’m a night owl who stays up and writes blog entries well passed midnight. Getting up at the crack of dawn is really not something I excel at. I was going to get up at 6AM and leave the house around 6:30 and make it to downtown in 30 minutes so that would have left me with 30 minutes to warm up and get ready. But my co-worker who ran this event the last three years said that traffic can be terrible and I better shoot for being there by 6AM! At this point I really had doubts whether this whole running and racing is worth it or not.

So I compromised and set the alarm for 5:30AM and I was out the door by 5:50AM well on my way. The trick was to have all my clothes set out ready to go the night before. Traffic was not bad at all it was actually really light and I made it to downtown in record time. My wife works downtown so she has a monthly parking pass in an underground garage so I went straight there. It turned out that the pass was unnecessary as it was free parking everywhere but it was still great to know where to park instead of trying to look around for a place. I was only about 500 yards from the start so I walked up to the starting line to size it up and make sure I can get there in time. There were a handful of runners already hanging out and warming up but I think they were just trying to stay warm.

Weather was freezing, it was a chilly 34 degrees (1 Celsius) with some good gusts of wind that really made it feel a lot colder. I had another one of those “what the hell am I doing?” moments and I quickly walked back to the parking garage and spent the next hour in my wife’s office waiting for the start time to get closer. As I was waiting for the time to pass I kept looking out the window to see if the crowd would grow bigger around the start line but I saw no real progress for the longest time. Around 7AM I decided it was time to drink my morning shake which had just the right amount of liquid and carbs for the run. I was also happy that I did not have to stand in line out in the cold for the port-a-potty I could use a much more civilized restroom in my wife’s building.

By the time I arrived to the start area there were a lot of people there. I did some warm up and around 7:20AM I got in line. It was pretty crowded and I honestly didn’t know where I should be standing with my planned target time of sub 50 minutes with the hope of under 48 minutes. I ended up what felt like the back of the pack but after post race analysis of gun times vs. chip times I was at the 25% mark. There were about 900 people in front of me and another 2,700 behind me. It sure felt like it was the other way around. At one point I also felt a bit like Apollo Ohno before the race; yawning and wearing my tight pants. But I must assure you the similarities ended right there. I might have watched a bit too much winter Olympics to make that connection. But hey, he’s also a runner and used to be chubby so there might be more similarities between him and I!

At 7:28AM I thought I heard the national anthem being sang by the front of the crowd but the singing didn’t quite travel to my area by the time it got to the end. Then at 7:30AM they promptly blew the air horn and the race was on. Well it was on for the folks at the front of the queue. For me it didn’t really start for another 40 seconds or so and even after successfully crossing the start line I was not really running for another 40 seconds. It was more like dodging people and trying to pass them any way I could.

At this point it became clear that next time I should be more aggressive about my starting position and go to the front of the line. I will not be stuck behind all the casual 1 hour plus runners next time for sure! I still kept passing people for the next mile and a half but things got better as the race progressed as the pace really started to spread us out.

My goal was to run an even split race. I was trying to run the first half as fast as the second half. This meant running the race smart and not overdoing the first half. This is where a heart rate monitor really comes handy. It’s kind of like a speedometer in your car that helps you to put your pace on cruise control without worrying too much about what the other people do around you. I just had to run my own race and ignore everyone else as hard as that is when there are this many other people around. Based on my training I knew what my heart rate was supposed to be and I ran the race based on heart rate rather than pace. I knew from training that as long as I kept my heart rate in check my pace would fall right in place.

So I ran the first half of the race at 92% of my Heart Rate Reserve which for me meant 174 bpm. Then during the second half I have upped it to 94% which was roughly 177 bpm. These are actually pretty high numbers and well into anaerobic exercising range which means it’s not really sustainable for any longer than a 10K run.

When said I have upped my heart rate for the second half it didn’t really reflect itself in increased speed. It basically just meant that my pace did not fade too badly. Due to the nature of Fort Worth’s downtown which sits on a knoll it is inevitable to run downhill for the beginning of the race and having to run uphill towards the end. This can catch you by surprise if you didn’t plan for it. I knew that the incline was coming towards the end and I was watchign my speed decline and my heart rate increase as I was reaching closer to the finish line. Fatigue really started to kick in around mile 5 out of the 6.2 and I knew that I still had ways to go and I kept myself running the pace by concentrating on not the next mile but on running the same pace to the next parked car or the next telephone pole.

At the last 200 yards I have decided to gun it and I ran a pretty decent sprint to the finish. But as you can see my finish photos had to suffer because of it. I look like I’m in horrendous pain when in reality I wasn’t. I was just getting tired and worn out but the minute I crossed the finish line, gathered up my finisher medal and a cup of water I was feeling great. Oh and how did I do? My chip time was 45:42 which meant I have finished 125th out of the 3416 finishers. In my age and gender group I have finished 10th out of 188 finishers. Out of the 933 people that started in front of me I had to pass 837 of them. The interesting thing in the results data is that out of the 45 people that started the race from the front of the pack (gun time and chip time are identical) their average time for the 10K is 1 hour 10 minutes and 4 seconds. The average for all 3,400+ finishers is 1 hour 10 minutes and 55 seconds. Apparently there are a lot of runners who are not very clear on just how good or bad of a runners they are.

All in all the race was great and I had a great time. While the pictures might indicate a complete agony I actually enjoyed every minute of the race and can’t wait to do it again.

I have 37 days to get in tip-top shape by then. Since my running has been going pretty good I have decided that it was time to take it to a next level. I’m a goal oriented person and I perform a lot better if I have set goals with set plans in motion instead of just winging it. I thought 5 weeks should be enough to get me in shape to finish the race. I have a target time in my head but I’m not going to commit to it publicly until it gets closer to the race and I get a better feel for my stamina and endurance. I have not ran 10K in a long long time. I did run 5 miles straight with no stopping last weekend and a 10K is only 1.2 miles more and I have certainly felt that I had it in me to continue. I have some more lofty goals in sight for the long term but this 10K will suffice on such a short notice.

A co-worker of mine has signed up for the half marathon. He has ran two marathons before but this time he didn’t really feel like committing to the longer distance. I think he’s not taking it all that seriously he’ll run a good bit between now and then but not with a serious plan in mind. I’m pretty excited about the race I really hope it will go well.