Last time, I talked about my experience before the Lucky 7 Fun Run 10k, stopping just at the beginning of the race. Well, here's my experience from the race.The race was supposed to start at around 8 am, but no action was actually taken until closer to 8:15, when they finally had us line up. Some sort of introduction was made, talking about how the person the race was being held for had passed away and this race was in her memory. Then someone fired off the starter gun, and everyone, except some poor lady who immediately died from a bullet wound, started off. This might be a good time to note that I plan to maintain a 95% factual accuracy rate in my blog.
So we were off. Based on my expertise (from reading, not actually running), I stayed toward the back of the line for the beginning. This is a very good idea for anyone who is not seriously competing in a race because being towards the front puts you with faster people, and you will end up going faster at the beginning than you wanted to. If you run too fast at the beginning, you're using up all your stored energy and will slow down towards the end. Also, it's really hurts your pride when everyone starts passing you halfway into the race.
This worked well for me for the first half-mile. We were on a wide downhill road, and there were a ton of people in front of me, but I could pass a few and remain towards the back of the pack. At one point during this stretch the road bent in a way that you could see what was going on about a quarter of a mile down the road and there were a bunch of people already running there. I'm not going to lie. It's a little disheartening to be trying hard and see a bunch of people ahead of you going at a speed you can't even reach when you try to sprint. Still, there I was, running a long race, and time was not the main reason for me being there.
Then we ended up on a trail that was one or two people wide. Now I was stuck behind a few middle-aged men and women who were not necessarily going slow, but were going slower than I probably wanted to go. Also, as I mentioned they were middle-aged, and I certainly couldn't let them stay in front of me. I had to wait a little while since there were trees on the sides and little room for passing, but I eventually passed them, but it didn't make much difference, since in front of them were a couple dozen more people going the same pace. These people were all twenty- and thirty-somethings, though, so I would just let them be, for now.
I reached the first mile marker and looked at my watch to see that it took me 10 minutes, not bad, but somewhat disappointing. After the first mile marker came the obstacle course. The rain from overnight stopped a little before the race started, but the remnants were still there. A twenty foot stretch of the path was covered in water. Everyone went in the grass to go around it, only to realize that the grass was also ankle deep in water. I went really wide around the trail, about ten to fifteen feet off of it and stayed mostly dry, until I hit an invisible patch of water in the grass that completely soaked my feet. Apparently it was inevitable. Fortunately I was wearing my special moisture-wicking non-cotton socks, so my feet felt relatively dry.
After a couple more puddles, the real fun began. Now, before the race, I had looked at the trail online, and the online map included an elevation chart. One thing this elevation charted noted was that in mile two there would be a mild incline for several hundred feet. I'm not quite sure what the definition of a mild incline is, but this hill was not fun, especially in the middle of a race where you're trying to maintain a modest speed. The worst part when you got to the top of the hill, you started going down a little, only to face another longer hill. All of this uphill running lasted for about 1/3 of a mile. After the hills, I got to the two mile marker and my time was around 20 minutes 15 seconds, meaning this mile took even longer.
The third mile was a little bit of a blur, although I do remember that a little creek was going over a part of the path so there was absolutely no way of avoiding the water. I also remember they had a volunteer pointing the way at a roundabout, which made me a little frustrated because I wanted to take the short way when no one was looking. At the end of the third mile, there was a fork in the road. The vast majority of people were going to the right, toward the 5k finish line. A small and idiotic group of people were going to the left, deciding that another lap around the park sounded like a good idea. I was one such idiot.
At this point my time was well over thirty minutes. While I say my main goal was to finish the race, I was going to be extremely disappointed with myself if I did not run the 10k in less than an hour, or a little less than 10 minutes per mile. I certainly wasn't running my best that morning, but I still should have been able to easily run that speed. I kicked it up a notch, taking a certain pride in passing individual people along the trail. I started passing a few people, all of whom were women. It seems a little sexist, but I really wanted to pass another guy, but since I had passed those middle aged men at the beginning of the race, I hadn't even seen another man. Still, any person passed was a small victory for me. The fourth mile was finished in 9 minutes 15 seconds, making my goal of staying under an hour much more attainable.
As I mentioned, the second part of the 10k was just a repeat of the first, so that meant the fifth mile was the same grueling set of hills as the second mile. By this time, I was a little more tired, but the competitive and stupid person in me noticed some people slowing down on the hills and took advantage of the opportunity to pass them. Towards the top of the hill I really wanted to stop for a walk, but I also knew that I was cutting it close to that hour goal, so I couldn't slow down. I did stop to walk briefly at a water stop while I was drinking, but that was it. Back to running. I ran the fifth mile in about 9 minutes 50 seconds. That was over 20 seconds faster than I ran the equivalent mile two, but it left me with about 11 minutes left to run the final 1.2 miles.
Like the third mile, the sixth mile was a blur to me. Although during training I had run a few hour runs, this was the first time I ran for an hour at a consistent and relatively high speed, and my body was starting to remind me of that. I'm glad there were no runners around me then, because at this point I started chanting "one hour" to myself to motivate myself to keep going. I kept looking at my watch to see how long I had to go. It was approaching 57 minutes and I was getting worried. I still didn't see any sign of the six mile marker. Still, I kept chanting out loud "one hour". 58 minutes. I finally saw the six mile marker. I pressed the lap button on my watch. 9 minutes 10 seconds. Somehow I managed my fastest mile of the race in my stupor, but that would be in vain if I collapsed right before the finish line, which was increasingly seeming possible. Still, I kept running and saw the finish line showing 59 minutes and some seconds on it. I just had to keep going and I would make it. I made it across the finish line at 59 minutes 33 seconds. More importantly, I made it across the finish line. Period. Sorry, that cliche just made me throw up in my mouth a little. Well, while I take care of that, I'll just say, see you next time.
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