Since my last post I have have run 3 races, one 5k and two 10 milers.
The first race was our local turkey trot 5k on Thanksgiving morning. At this point my training was still on track but i had planned a 5 miler that day. So before the race I ran a easy 2 miles. I do not recall my exact goal for this race. I just remember its been forever since I raced a 5k I was not sure what to expect. Race day was cloudy and 66, not bad but not PR type weather, not that was the goal lol. The race had a ton of runners and I had not made it into the corrals before the race started and it took a few minutes to just cross the starting line. Below are my mile splits:
Mile 1 7:54
Mile 2 7:49
Mile 3 7:48
Mile .1 7:37
Finish time of 24:26 and average pace of 7:50.
Looking back on it, I felt I had a fairly consistent effort/pace and I do not think I could have done much better on that give day.
The next race was the Golden Fliers 10 Miler on December 14. The weather was 54 at the start, sunny, and WINDY! This was the first year in many this race has been ran, but not on its original course which is under construction for a few years. Simple course now, 5 miles down river road, turnaround, run up on top the levee for the return trip. The downside was the return trip, with a headwind to fight on top of the levee. A south wind at that time of year is just unlucky and we would have typically had the head wind while at ground level for the first 5 miles. The day before the race I did a lot of yard work and ended up with a migraine that put a early end to my evening. This is also meant I did not eat dinner that night because it makes me feel even worse. To make things worse I skipped lunch that day. The two weeks prior consisted two runs for a total of 8 miles. My confidence level waking up the next morning was low but my first goal was to just finish, with 1:40:00 as plan B 1:35:00 as a plan C and unlikely goal of 1:30:00. Below are my race splits:
Mile 1 8:50
Mile 2 8:48
Mile 3 8:53
Mile 4 9:01
Mile 5 8:50
Mile 6 9:47 (Both shoes came untied!!!)
Mile 7 9:03
Mile 8 9:04
Mile 9 9:22
Mile 10 9:16
Finish Time of 1:31:16 with a 9:05 pace.
I was very happy with my effort after this race after considering all the things listed above and the shoes coming untied was my fault. I forgot to double knot them like I normally do.
3 weeks later I had my next race on January 4, the Wilderness 10 Miler. This race is about a hours drive from my house and has "hills". Ive ran this race a few times and the course and areas around it when I was training for Boston over 10 years ago lol. Its a very scenic area that doesn't feel like the part of the state I live in. With the holidays and some other items outside of my control I ran an average of twice a week leading up to this race. But unlike the last 10 miler I did have proper meals before the race. With the lack of training my goals were about the same as Golden Fliers, but maybe a little slower since the "hills" lol. Race day weather was very nice, 50 with cloud cover and a light breeze. My mile splits are as follows:
Mile 1 9:19
Mile 2 9:32
Mile 3 8:56
Mile 4 8:46
Mile 5 9:08
Mile 6 8:53
Mile 7 9:25
Mile 8 9:14
Mile 9 9:24
Mile 10 8:42
Finish Time of 1:31:30 with a average pace of 9:08.
While my time was slower than the last race, I felt like this was my best effort of the 3 races. I caught up with a pace group around mile 3 or 4 and just having a group to pace with and make small talk took my mind of the miles and made for a nice run.
NEXT UP! Louisiana Half Marathon on January 19. I am aiming for a sub 2 hour effort but not by much. The holidays are over and my running schedule is more open and normal so this one is just gonna be about pushing through the last 5k of the race. I am also planning on running another half in March that I would like to have a good effort on for POT to attempt to get into corral A for the WDW marathon in 2026. With registration opening early this year it looks like I will register before the last half on my plan and hopefully have a new time to submit a week or so after registration to improve my position.
Thanks for reading along!