a PR, orange shirt man & a cold beer

St. Patty's Day. One of my favorite times of the year in Aggieville. Race day, green beer, parade, candy.... nothing sounds bad about any of those things!

However ... the 10k. My race nemesis. I have fought this distance for a long, long time. Too far to sprint (for me). Not far enough to settle down. Not far enough to make up time if you blow it somewhere along the course. Just an in-between distance that you have to try to go all out for ... but all out for 6.2 ... well, that's a long way.

I've been doing some speed work in the last 3 weeks or so, feeling pretty good about the 5k distance. I ran a few 5k PRs lately, so I knew I was feeling faster. But could I hold on to it for 6.2?

As usual, race day freaking the freak out. Tied/untied/tied my shoes about 64 times. I had a plan & Garmin ... but as always ... questioning whether I could pull it off.

Here was the plan : (yes, I had the splits written on my arm. FREAK)
Mile 1 - 10 min (slooooow it down, it's uphill & crowded)
Mile 2 - 9:30
Mile 3 - 9:00
Mile 4 - 9:00
Mile 5 - 8:30
Mile 6 - 9:00
.2 - sprint with whatever is left in the tank

GOAL: 55 minutes & whatever it takes for me to finish that .2

My 10k PR is 59:04. That was 2 years ago, pre-knee surgery. I've ran several 10k's since then - I've never been able to break that time.Race started out crowded & like all races, a bit hard to find a spot. But just a few blocks in it thinned out to where I barely noticed anyone else around me. Plugged into my tunes & tried to settle myself down. I had a plan. I had my Garmin (first race with the Garmin by the way). I knew I could do this.

Race went a little something like this:
Mile 1 - hated every second (like always)
Mile 2 - gawww can I just get to mile 3 (starts to rain)
Mile 3 - finally. now the fun begins!
Mile 4 - spotted orange shirt man. (more on that later)
Mile 5 - stayed *right* on the heels of orange shirt man.
Mile 6 - still right behind orange shirt man.
.2 - ran it in arm & arm with orange shirt man.

race time : 55:33

I about cried crossing that finish line. Such an emotional day for several reasons:

1. Knee surgery sucks & I feel like it took FOREVER to get back. That was about a year ago. Today was the day I truly felt I finally had it.

2. I didn't barf.

3. I saw so many of my friends after. Lots of fun.

4. Watching Russ in front of me the whole race was an awesome thing. I smiled many times seeing that TRR shirt rockin' a 6 minute PR.

Ok so now the story of orange shirt man. Having Russ in my sites pushed me most of the way, but by mile 3 he was a bit ahead of me, so I needed something a little closer. I always try to find someone along the course that I can kinda stay with - or try to beat. I don't care who they are, but if I like their pace, I'm not afraid to ride right in on their heels.

This is where orange shirt man came in. I saw my friend Jeff right after mile 3, we chatted for a second, & I said, 'Jeff, I gotta go - I have my sites on orange shirt man & I have to stay with him. I like his pace.'

Orange shirt man had on a tank top, shorts and arm warmers. Anyone who is cool enough to wear arm warmers? Yep, I'm following you.

About a 1/2 mile later, I ran up to him & asked 'if I follow you, what is our time?' He said a very confident 54 min. RIGHT ON DUDE. I'm with you.

I could see him look back around mile 4 - I kinda lost it for a second there & fell behind. I got a little caught up in friends along the course & my focus went to fun suzy instead of race suzy. But I gained it back, caught up to him on a downhill.

Down into Aggieville - what sucks about this race is you come down the hill into the finish area, but you still have a mile to go. All these people cheering & stuff - you just feel like you should be done. Mile 6 was kinda tough, but I stayed with my new friend & I had the best race EVER! I don't know that dude, but he got me a 4 minute PR this weekend.

This is what I had after....one or two or three....Thanks Marian for the ride home! :)