Yesterday morning, I did the Charles Harris 10K. I have done this race once before, two years ago. Back in 2009, it was 26 degrees at the start. This morning was a much more temperate 37.
The race starts at a high school that’s very close to my house. Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there, so I had to drive my car to the finish and take a shuttle back to the start.
After several bad runs in the past few weeks, I was ready to have a good race. I really wanted to break an hour. Running goals are good and bad for me. Good, obviously, because they challenge me to really give it my all, but bad because I get so disappointed if I don’t achieve them. I knew that I’d have to run a 9:40 mile to break an hour and I thought that sounded reasonable, especially since the course is a net downhill.
My friend Joan was running the race too. We ran the first mile together and then got separated. They had big time clocks at every mile marker. We crossed the first at 10:01. We were sort of in the back to begin with so I knew that I was on pace.
Although very well organized, this race is a pretty boring course. It’s basically down an ugly main road. Every time I got to the next mile marker, I was surprised that my pace wasn’t slowing down. Even around the midway point, where there was a bit of an uphill, I was on target. There were three water stops along the route and I stopped and walked through them all.
When I got to mile 5 and the clock read 48 something, I knew that a sub-hour race was doable. Fortunately, there was a big half-mile or so downhill, so I tried to pick up the pace as best I could. The last half mile of the race was rough – you run past where your cars are parked and into a neighborhood. The end is near, but you just can’t see it yet and it seemed like I was running through the neighborhood forever! But finally, the finish line was in view.
When I got close enough to read the clock, it said something like 59:50. I knew that I wasn’t going to get a clock time of less than an hour, but I was pretty sure that I started at least 30 seconds after the gun.
Final Results:
Gun time: 1:00:06
Chip time: 59:32
Pace: 9:35
It wasn’t a PR, but I’ll take it. Sub-60 10K! It’s only the second time I’ve done that.
Great job Lee! Those speedier treadmill runs are paying off. I hate when I’m running race and the finish line seems like it’s never going to appear. Every expletive in the book starts going through my mind, but then it’s like the heavens sing once you see it in the distance, lol
Awesome!!! Great job, Lee. I’m excited to run our race “together” in about 6 more weeks.Wow. That’s coming up fast!
I’m excited too. I need to remember to sign up!
Congrats on your 10K, Lee, and being sub one hour!! I love that “racing season” is here. I so enjoy reading through people’s race recaps!
And congrats on being a “.com”! Was it hard to change over?
Thanks. I had someone move the blog for me, so I didn’t have to do that part. The wordpress.org interface is very similar to wordpress.com so that part is easy. I’m having trouble with Mars Edit, which is the blogging software I use.
Awesome! Glad you had a great race!
That’s great girlie! Awesome job! Props to you for running in the cold too! I hate it!
Great job girlie! Props to you for running in the cold too! I can’t stand it!
Awesome job, Lee!!
Congrats! That’s so cool.
NICELY done girl!! All that work you’ve been doing to pick up that pace is paying off!! So proud of you.
Great job, girl!!!! Nice to see hard work paying off!
Congrats Lee! That’s a great time
Way to go! You said you wanted to finish under and hour and you totally nailed it
That’s awesome!
…and I’m shuddering at the thought of 37 degree days hahaha. I’m looking forward to the 70s in store this week in Arizona
It’s ok, you’ll be laughing at me in a few weeks when it gets too hot to even go outside and get into my car.
It was actually around 70 by the middle of the day. Just 35 in the early morning!
You did awesome! I would die if I had to run in 30-something degree weather
Great job on the sub 60!!!! And I also love when they have the big time clocks at every mile. Kind of drives the competitor inside of you
. Congrats again
Great job Lee!!!
That is awesome Lee! I’m glad it was downhill if it was a boring/ugly course.
Congrats on a great job!!!! That should keep a big huge smile on your face for at least a week.
Great job on the race!
Congrats on the sub-60! That’s awesome.
Yay! Congratulations!! It’s awesome that you ran your goal time on a course that sounds like it was pretty tough mentally. I can’t believe they had you run past your cars to the finish – talk about torture!
Hope you are still feeling that high from getting your sub-60 and treating yourself this week!