Saturday morning my alarm went off at 4am, and I got up without hitting the snooze to get ready and be out the door by 4:40 to head to Bill's and then head to Merle Hay where our bus would take us to Saylorville lake and drop us off at the dam to only run back to another dam in the downtown area...
(See those buildings on the horizon?? That's where we're running to...)
Last week I mentioned that I had some super secret goals that I was hoping to accomplish with this race. Sadly, I did not accomplish either of them. I wanted to run the entire time, and I wanted to finish within 2:30, which would be a 12:00 minute pace.
I would post my splits, but Runkeeper went pretty haywire for the last half and the app thinks I ran over 13 miles (the race was 12.4) so my splits are pretty inaccurate - perhaps it is time for a Garmin?? Here are my first 6 miles, which look like they're right.
Mile 1 - 10:46
Mile 2 - 10:27
Mile 3 - 11:11
Mile 4 - 11:36
Mile 5 - 12:11
Mile 6 - 12:29
I know I got started too fast. I have never held a pace in the ten minute range, and although I could feel myself going too fast, I just couldn't make myself slow down. Maybe this is why I hit a wall at mile 9-10 and just did not want to run anymore??
My final time was 2:39, 9 minutes slower than what I was hoping for, but it was an 11 minute PR from last year. So, success! Although I did not run 100% of this race, I did run for about 90%, which is much better than what I did last year.
(Bill and I right before heading up to the dam and beginning the race)
Overall, it was a good race. I had fun, I ran a lot and beat my time from last year. I think that if I am this concerned with time, I need to start working on that. I have not worked on speed at all, so I think I need to start figuring out what my goals really are now, since they have obviously changed a little bit from last year!
Next up for me is a half marathon with See-Us Run Des Moines and then probably the Des Moines Half Marathon in October. Other than long distance races, I am doing a 5k next weekend at the zoo! Can't wait for that :)
