Not Listening To My Own Advice...

I'm not sure I'll ever learn. A month ago I wrote about how if you want to do well in a race, some training is necessary. I haven't exactly been a slacker but I can surely say I haven't been focused on one particular sport. Some day I'm going to have to decide whether I'm a runner or a cyclist because apparently I can't do either one well unless I concentrate on one of them exclusively.

A month or so ago, I signed up for the Ryka Iron Girl 10k. It was held down in Marina Bay, Quincy. It was a pretty hot and humid morning and thankfully the race was scheduled to go off at 8 am.

Lately, my goal for any 10k is to run under 50 min. I would really like to stretch and make it an ongoing goal to run a 10k in my age in minutes. Maybe I should wait until I'm 50. Or in Sunday's case, 52.

The course was nice and flat. For the 10k runners, it was two loops of the 5k course. That's good if you're aiming for a PR since the first lap gets you well acquainted with the course. For those of us who are really just trying to hang in there, two loops of the same course gets old.

Before the race, I stretched on the pier. No one else was out there so it was a good quiet place to stretch and think about what the *&^%$ I was thinking signing up for a race in July and not training. Around 30 min before the start, I headed to the port-o-john line which was the longest I'd ever seen. Someone should tell Dave McGillivray (race director) that women really don't like to pee in the bushes like the guys and 13 port-o-johns isn't going to cut it for 1,000 women. Made it to the "start line" as the national anthem was being sung. It was too crowded to work my way closer to the front so I was stuck in the back with the over 9 min milers. Not only did that mean an extra 20-30 seconds on my time (that's how long it took me to get to the start line once the gun sounded) but I had to cut and weave my way for the first half mile before I could settle into a pace.

My splits show how I faded: 7:57 8:09 8:20 8:40 8:48 8:43 1:29

My watch time was 51:56 while the official chip time was 52:19. Bleech. It got me 17th place in my age group. If I was a year older, I would have been second. So I guess there is something to be said for getting older.

I did get a nice Iron Girl tech fabric t-shirt. And a finisher's medal. Overall, with the exception of the paucity of port-o-johns, it was a very nice race (especially for an inaugural one). And I should stop whining. At least I'm lucky enough to be able to run a 10k - and one with nice views of the harbor and the Boston skyline.