Today was a great running day. I went into the race ambitious and more or less lived up to my expectations. It is the most confident I’ve felt running in, I can’t remember how long. The training is finally paying off. Consistent easy high mileage…
I was treated to a third massage this week by Sandra and it really did the trick. Yesterday’s speedy mile also helped boost the confidence level and pain threshold. I went into the race wanting to try and maintain 5:30 pace. About the same group was there again (minus Ted, I sure hope he is soon 100% again). I did a two mile warmup with Sasha and Steve and one mile on my own. For the race I ran the first two miles with Albert. We were shooting to NOT go faster than 5:30 pace and we succeeded, 5:39. During the second mile I felt like he was going to pull away and that he was pushing the pace but we barely broke 5:30, 5:29. After that I picked up the pace and he fell back a little, but by the next marker I had actually slowed again 5:37. After the turnaround I really wanted to catch the two guys ahead of me. One of them was a Running Advantage guy that I didn’t catch in the 5K and the other was a guy in gray. So I bore down and passed them both, 5:27. The next mile I was feeling on fire and only slowed a little 5:32. The final mile I could feel the wheels starting to come off so luckily it was the last, 5:34. The final 0.24 was in 1:14. Overall, I finished 5th in a 34:33.53 for 6.24 miles at 5:32 pace with a HR of 183. After the race I immediately changed into my warm-ups and trainers and reran the course plus an extra little to round off the mileage. I am very happy with today and only have minor aches and pains to show for it. I looked back and this is my 4th fastest 10K ever. I had two track races my senior year in college faster and my Des 10K time last year. So this was my fastest non-aided 10K in almost 8-yrs!!! I am VERY happy with it. It did play a toll on my body as the rest of the day I had stomach problems. I shook stuff loose running that fast… I was able to spend the afternoon with my family but am sitting at work typing this up now. Hopefully I’ll get home at a decent time to get some good sleep. Overall, today makes me that much more hungry for the team relay in Phoenix the end of the month and my marathon in April… | 
