I've never ran 10 miles before. So, number one, that's an instant PR. But, it also presents a slight problem, I didn't really know how to pace myself for this run. I ran the OUC half with a pace of 6:17/mile in December, and in March I ran the Winter Park 10k with a pace of 6:00/mile. I knew I wouldn't be able to hold a 6:00/mile pace for a 10 mile race, but I figured I could do something in between... so about 6:10/mile. I figured I would start off at somewhere between 6:15-6:20 and see how I felt.
I saw Paula and Michelle before the race, and met their friend Tyler. Michelle and Tyler had also never ran a 10 mile race, so we congratulated each other on our PRs before the race started. And, it turned out Paula ran a new PR by 14 minutes! Wow!
They told us beforehand that this course would have a lot of twists and turns, so to look for the volunteers giving directions and posted signs. They were right, it was all over the place! But, a credit to the race organizers, there was never really a time where I didn't know where to go. But, I did kinda feel like this while running:
The campus is nice to run around, but 10 miles may be a little too much. Maybe a 5 mile course with 2 loops would be better.
Anyways, once we started, one guy bolted to the front and that was pretty much the last I saw of him except for the turnarounds. And each time, he had put more distance between us. So, catching him was not really an option. But, I ran the first 2 miles in ~6:17 pace and then for the rest of the race, most of my mile splits were under 6:10. Except mile 8, which I split in 6:27. I'm not sure what happened there, we were running into a headwind for virtually the whole mile. And, at that point, I think I was just ready for the race to be over, and I was mentally struggling with the fact that I had 2+ miles to go. But, once I turned onto the road going out to the stadium, passing mile marker 8, the wind wasn't so bad and it was cool to run around the stadium.
I was in second place for virtually the whole race, but one guy was with me from about mile 2 on. At about that point, we also dropped the girl in the lead. So, it was just us two. He seemed content to just hang back and let me do the work. But, sometimes he came up beside me and ran side by side with me... especially near the end. I wish he would have done that earlier. It's much easier mentally to run with someone stride for stride, rather than having someone drafting off of you. After we rounded the stadium, we had about a tenth of mile to the finish at the CFE Arena. I tried to hold him off, but he out kicked me at the end for second place.
I ended up finishing third overall in 1:01:09, that's about 6:07 pace. If I could hold that pace for another 3.1 miles, I would break 1:20 for a half marathon. I don't have the fitness for that right now though. The winner ran a little over 58:00. So, he thoroughly kicked our butts. Maybe next year, I can make it my goal to break an hour at this race. This was the inaugural race, and the medal was a big shiny U. They are going to do a C for next year's medal and then an F for the year after that. So, I'll have to at least run this race for the next two years to complete my UCF medal set. Which won't be hard to do, I enjoyed the race, and I think they did a fantastic job for their first time! I only see it getting better as they get more experience under their belts.
This is probably my last race until the Track Shack race series starts up again at the end of August. Unless I do the Fishstock 5k in New Smyrna. I've done that 5k for the last 4 years with my Dad and some of my sisters. But, I don't know if it's going to happen this year.
So, my goal for the next few months is to build up a bigger running base. Hopefully, getting to the point where I'm consistently running 70-80 miles a week.
So, that's about it. Here are my splits for the race:
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