David's Blog

Race Report: Martian 10K 2012

Saturday morning I finally ran my first 10K\! I was out the door by 6:30 to get to Dearborn for the race that started at 8. It was an early morning to be sure but that’s always fine if it’s for running. I was pretty conflicted over whether to eat anything when I woke at 6 because it was right in the span of time where I may or may not regret but also I was unsure of if I would need it because this race is longer than I’m used to (normally I wouldn’t need to eat for a 5k). I didn’t end up eating and we got to the race in time for me to get ready with a bathroom visit and a bit of a warmup (only a mile, would have liked to do a bit more but it worked out nicely).

A few minutes before the race I lined up at what I thought was not too far back but it turned out I got boxed in after the start. This happens too much - other runners really don’t consider where they should be based on their starting time. I was doing a slow jog for probably almost a minute before I could get through the crowd at all and then really pushed for the first mile to make up time.

I went into the race planning on running just under 7 minute pace for each mile and had decided if I could do that then I’d be at least satisfied with what I ran. The first mile turned out being around 6:45 between the adrenaline of the start and me being angry and running hard to make up time from the start.

The next few miles went by easily. The pace felt pretty relaxed for me compared to my usual constant exhaustion for a 5k. The second and third miles I ran in 6:53 and 6:55 respectively - right on pace\! Additionally I really didn’t feel too fatigued after this which was part of the plan. My breathing was easy and my legs felt good. It turned out that miles four and five were a little more difficult but not so much that I noticed. Either I completely missed the 4 mile mark or it wasn’t up yet but I caught the 5 mile mark. They were actually just setting up that mile marker as I passed it and I was no where near the front of the pack so this was pretty surprising to me. I averaged 7:01 for those two miles and went into the last mile ready to push a bit harder.

Now the last mile was actually more difficult but still wasn’t bad - I guess this means I could have raced faster but I was just sticking to the plan. There were a few good sized up hill portions towards the end of the race and those were rough but otherwise the last 1.2 miles felt good because I knew I was almost done. The last turn was made right around the 6 mile mark which gave a straightaway of about 200m. This I really liked because it gave you time to see the finish coming and really push. The last 1.2 miles I finished in about 8:22 which is under

  1. minute pace as well - so I did a pretty good job of sticking to the pace\!

I finished in a total of 42:53 and I’m happy with that. It is definitely something I can improve on but it’s a good starting place I think. Overall it was a good day to race. It was a bit rainy early on but that cleared pretty quickly and the course was pretty nice. Like I said, there were a few rough uphills but otherwise I think the course was pretty fast. It was winding and there was enough room on the course (granted I was only around 3 or 4 other runners for most of the race).

Full results can be found here.

Aftermath

The rest of Saturday I was limping around and my right leg was bothering me quite a bit when I put weight on it. Sunday I felt a bit better and even went for an easy 5 mile run with some friends and it didn’t bother me too much but I could definitely still feel that my leg wasn’t 100%. Monday was worse again and I even cut my run short (4 miles instead of 5) because I didn’t want to aggravate it any more than I already had.

I’m going to take today and tomorrow off and ice a bit before I reevaluate what to do but I’m really hoping things get better. It kills me not to be able to run.