Official Time: 41:52
Actual time: 41:57
My first race here in Arizona and it went quite well, in retrospect. I didn't hit my goal of breaking 40 minutes but I was well under the minimum limit of 45 minutes I set for myself.
Most importantly, I bested my last 10K time by almost five minutes.
Progress. There you have it.
I took my dad to the airport this morning and then went to the location of the race right after. I was almost two hours early so I took my time getting my gear in order and put down two energy bars while waiting.
I picked up a $3 long sleeve shirt at Albertsons during the week and it was perfect for the slightly chilly morning. I walked the mile-and-a-half to the race site - a distance I planned on as a way to get my warm-up started.
During the week, I had sucessfully kept the nervousness at bay but it kept popping up right before the race. I even had a moment of fear I was there on the wrong day before I saw someone else with a race number on.
I wandered around the event site and finally found the booth with the timing chips. I was a bit concerned about these since I've never used one but it was really no problem. I put it on my right ankle and completely forgot about it until the end of the race.
To stay warmed up I just slowly walked around while sipping on my bottle of Gatorade. At about the one-hour mark I started slowly jogging, little more than a walk. After ten minutes I turned it up to a 'real' warm up pace for five minutes.
I took a route near Sun Devil Stadium and, as I expected, there were random porta-potties scattered about the parking lot. I got my two cups of coffee drained from my bladder and zero waiting in line.
With about 40 minutes left I headed back to the race site and stretched out in the grassy area of the park. I left my long sleeve shirt on a bench. Hopefully a homeless guy found it. I did a few exaggerated strides for form and then wandered over to the starting area.
There were a good number of folks for the race - about 3,000 people ran the 10K - but there was really a nice vibe. Not a lot of heavy tension you get when top-heavy with running snobs but really laid-back.
About a half-dozen panjandrums had to talk before they let us start. We were all ready and they decided to do the national anthem as well. Nice touch but... um, how about having a flag there next time, guys.
I got in the mix about where I thought I should be starting. Turned out the timed areas were pretty useless. They hit the horn to get us going and I spent the first minute and a half wading through folks just-better-than-walkers.
As a result, I wasn't really happy hitting the first mile marker at something over 7:30. Worse, it was right in the middle of the biggest hill on the course so stepping up the pace had to wait.
I upped the pace a bit on the downhill and then started trying to find the groove. That was tough since the running situation was so different from what I am used to. Basically, I kept reeling in runners and trying not to get passed.
Since I wasn't going to be out there an hour I skipped all the water stations. But I took the tangent on every curve to save as much distance as possible. I don't know if these things will matter in the marathon, but it's good to practice decent running strategy anyway.
(At one point a guy in front of me dropped a $20 bill. I stopped, picked it up and sprinted back forward and handed it to him. He gave me this weird surprised look and then said "Oh!" when he realized what had happened.)
By mile four, I was around a group going my pace and I was focusing on one or two of them a bit faster than me to keep going. I wanted to start running on my toes at the four mile mark but held off since I knew it would take too much out of me.
The organizers put bands at most the corners to keep the energy up. I had to say, this is a better motivator than I expected. You hear them ahead of you and it gives you something to aim for. If, by chance, any of you guys that played read this - thanks a ton. It really mattered.
I pushed the tempo up on the last mile and, as I neared the finish area, I started exaggerating my stride in order to pick up a few seconds. I felt strong enough over that last stretch that it made me wonder if I shouldn't have started the kick even earlier.
My watch read 41:57 but my chip time came out half a minute faster. I'm not sure if that indicates innacuracy on my part or on the part of the timing device. Either way, I know the ballpark I am playing in now.
Conditions:
Start: 8:30 a.m.Surface: concrete/asphalt
Weather: sunny
Temperature: 63 degrees
Humidity: 32 percent
Wind: 8 mph
Location: Tempe, Arizona
Shoes: Adrenaline GTS 6