Corrida de Corrales on Sunday was to be my first 10K race in 5 years. The last one I did was in Illinois, and that race was my PR for the distance - 52:24.
I had a couple of things going against me. First I stayed up until 3 am the night before, and had to get up at 6 to get to the race on time. Not really my first choice, but Co has been yet again inflicted with a kidney stone, and had to go to the emergency room for pain and nausea medications Saturday night. The CT scan showed that the stone brought 2 buddies along with him, so the fun might last a while.
All the other reasons for potential failure pale with that one. But since I have to build the anticipation, here they are anyway. The last race was at sea level, this one's NOT - it's in the north part of ABQ at ~5600 ft. up. Even more, this course is on dirt/sand, while the previous race was on roads which is faster. Also, I hurt my hamstring last week. I didn't blog about it, being that I was so pleased with my track performance on Tuesday, but... Then Wednesday morning I went and did a strength and plyometrics class, and I went to my normal Yoga class at lunch. Seems I was a bit aggressive with the stretching or strengthening because my right ham was really sore Wednesday night, Thursday, and Friday. I even skipped my tempo workout Thursday because of it. And last but not least, I've only been training for a 10K for 4 weeks - hardly enough time to make real progress. My training books recommend 8 to 12 weeks.
Despite all the issues working against me, I prevailed! :) My Forerunner (GPS unit that tracks pace distance and HR) ran out of batteries before the race started, so I don't have a lot of detail (ok, no sighs of relief out there!). I forgot to charge it Saturday night (there were a few other things on my mind). I think I went out a little fast, but I'll never know - there weren't mile markers that I saw for the first 3 miles. I hit mile 4 feeling good, but getting tired at 31:33. Mile 5 at 39:27. Getting really tired now. Mile 6 at 47:12. And I beat my PR by finishing in 48:20! Woo hooo! That's more than 4 minutes better! ~45 sec faster per mile! That put me 2nd in my age group and 4th woman overall. I won a nice pottery vase as an award.
Coach K will probably make speed workouts more challenging now... Or set a much tougher goal to reach. Maybe I just won't tell him.
On the other hand, It'd be nice to break 47 minutes.....
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Congrats, Mo.
Wish we were there to cheer you on.
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