Redondo Beach Super Bowl Sunday 10k

Someone wiser than me once said that when you train for raceday there are no guarantees that the day you race will be that day…and today was not that day! The short story is, yes I did PR, the long story goes along the lines; caught a cough, had sick kids in the house waking up during the night; I never really caught up on my sleep and my legs, for some unknown reason, were insanely tired?!?

I arrived at the start about 15 minutes before the start, this may seem like great timing but I was late, late enough that they had run out of shirts, no biggie, but also late enough to be in enough of a flap to have forgotten the BodyGlide and my HR Strap and well; it’s all a bit stressful isn’t it! I ran a mile to the start, picked up my number and weaved my way through the crowd to try and get to the front or close to it. I retied my laces stood up and the gun went off and so did I. There was some weaving and jostling for the first mile or so but not too much. Miles 1-3 were steady and as close to my target pace of 7:00 that I could have got to without being on a treadmill. Whereas the first three miles were essentially flat or close to it, the second three miles not so much, there were a two solid climbs; just before mile 5 and the second one at mile 5.5 followed by a couple of tight turns to the finish.

I had planned for 6:45s for the second three miles and would then go flat out for the last point oh two, the second three was where I fell out of bed. Mile 4 was solid but slow, mile 5 I was slipping backwards and by mile 6 I had come off the rails. The last kick was strong and was as fast as most of my 400 meter interval sessions.

So the upside was that I reduced my PR by 3:41, my chip time was 44:02:09, I was 201^st of 3043 (2092 male) runners and 28^th in my age group of 267, had I hit my goal of 42:00 I would have been 16^th. So all in all not a bad showing, the downside is hard to quantify, other than what I note above there’s nothing I can really put my finger on.

So when my wife suggested that we go to the local kid’s 1k/5k/10k race next weekend I jumped, cough gone, more sleep and a 5 mile drive not a 50 mile drive will, I am sure hope, have some effect…let’s wait and see!

How was your weekend?