Different Race, Same Place

In college the 10K was my race - it was the longest distance offered. The highlight of my track career was probably a fifth place finish at the NCAA Division I New England Regional Meet (I went to a Div. 3 school). I still drink coffee in the mug I won. My best college time was still about 50 seconds too slow to qualify for Nationals.

Since graduating, I have tended to favor races longer than the 10K. Somewhere in my mind I have just decided I am too slow for that distance and so I don't usually do it. But this week my good friend and colleague, Debbie, came in on Monday and asked if I wanted to do the Willamette Valley Road Runners Club Summer Solstice 10K with her Friday night. She did have one reservation:"Wait, you aren't in my age group are you?" Debbie's got a competitive nature, too! After she was assured that I was not in her age group, she again encouraged me to run with her. The race was in Minto-Brown Park, which is probably the best running opportunity in Salem and I was anxious to learn more about the trails there. And the price was right: $8 ($10 day of race), which included an ice cream sundae at the finish. Plus, I figured a 10K would count as a good tempo run.

To solidify my intentions to use this race as a workout I still did my usual "ass-kick Wednesday" workout: up at 4:30 (AM!) for a set of mile repeats and some heavy lifting! Not to mention, I like to have an excuse to fall back on if the race doesn't go well!

I met Debbie at the race and we milled around a bit before the air-horn signaled the start of the race. We took off and I could immediately make out three girls ahead of me. I know, I know, this was just a workout, but it never hurts to check out the competition, right?

The race started down the bike path before turning on to a bark chip (and not barf chip!) path. I passed one girl on a small uphill before mile one. My 6:44 split was faster than I wanted - I guess I am still having problems with going out too fast. I slowed it down, because I knew I couldn't keep that pace, especially because I could feel a bit tiredness in my legs, surely left over from Wednesday (or at least that's my excuse!).

The next girl up slowed a bit too and I fell in behind her. At the two mile mark, I pulled past her, too. I could see the last girl up ahead, but I never seemed to get any closer, even though I did a pretty good job of keeping a consistent pace after mile one (7:11, 7:14, 7:14, 7:12, 7:18). At mile four, I could hear somebody behind me and I was sure one of the girls had made a comeback, but it turned out to be a guy with long basketball-types shorts, riding way too low on his hips, particularly for a runner! He passed me but I managed to get him back with about a mile to go, probably because I got sick of looking at the four inches of gray underwear sticking out above his shorts! I didn't catch the girl ahead of me and so took my usual second place (44:41) (11th overall). She got a nice medal for the win and I had to just settle for an age group award : a first place laminated paper ribbon! (sorry first LOSER!) My friend Debbie also took home the blue ribbon in her age category.

OK, sure, I'd like to be writing about how I won the race and got all the applause when they announced the winner, but it was still a good race for me and I had a great time. Minto-Brown proved to have a lot more trails than I was giving it credit for. After the first mile, I think I did a great job at running a constant pace, especially since the variation corresponds very nicely with the little hills on the course (mostly it was flat). And my time was nearly 11 minutes faster than the first 10K I did this year five months ago- just goes to show the power of training! And who wouldn't be proud to hang a paper ribbon on the wall?