It’s been a great spring so far. After some time off after the Napa Valley marathon, I ran the local Springtime 10k on April 2nd, coming in 1st place a bettering my time by a wide margin with a 34:58 (I ran 37:10 in 2019). The local races in Tallahassee took a long time to come back after COVID-19, so it was super fun to be able to run this one again and see friends/acquaintances I don’t often get a chance to see!
It was a hard race since I hadn’t
done much but some fartleks and faster turnover work – no straight threshold
work. The course was hilly! Averaged 60 feet gain per mile! It was 57F and 73% humidity
according to Strava, not super bad, but not quite ideal. I *wanted* to go for
the course record, set by an Irish Olympian decades ago (lol). The time to beat
was 34:09, so about 5:28 per mile was what I needed. I went out in a 5:30 on an
out of back flat portion, which didn’t feel great, especially considering there
there where only steep hills and more turns to come for the next 4 miles before
the downhill finish. The middle of the race was TOUGH. I was in no man’s land,
going up and down hills and making sharp turns with another 180 degree turnaround.
I saw some slow splits, like slower than my mile average for my best half marathons.
I knew it unfortunately wasn’t in the cards for me to break the record, but
tried to keep up a solid effort. The last mile was great, as we got some solid
downhill and the fact that the race was almost over was nice lol. In fact, mile
6 was the only time I hit goal pace, with a 5:28. Definitely have a lot of
respect and awe for a time 50 seconds faster than I went, some days humility is
the lesson and you can still be satisfied with giving your best.
What I (selfishly lol) love about
this race is that the local Lululemon store always gives away a sports bra and leggings
to the winner (yes, this is better than straight cash since I don’t feel guilty
about buying more lulu lol). So there’s the major silver lining 😉
Also, our team placed 2nd,
the Tallafasties. What an honor to be a part of such a great club – Gulf Winds
Track Club (GWTC) and be part of a baller all female team which the best sparkly
pink singlets.
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