Race report: Capitol 10k

Let me start this report by saying this: "I GET TO UPDATE MY SIDEBAR!"

Look to the right side of this page. No, your other right. See. Where it says, "My really fast days" right under the cute kid.

That's right. I get to update that list.

I PR'd by more than two minutes at the Capitol 10k Sunday, finishing in 41:47, a tidy pace of 6:44 min/mile.

Ok. Full disclosure. The only way I was not going to PR was had I not entered this race. My previous PR of 43:49 came in March of 2009, before I started logging heavy miles with Team Rogue. 43:49 is 7:04 min/mile. I hit that pace sometimes in training.

Still, Sunday's run was not without its apprehensive moments. I woke up with the worst headache (tooooo much cabernet for 5ksandcabernets!) and an even worse tummy ache that allowed me enough time in the loo to read all of the Sunday paper and attempt to do the NY Times crossword puzzle.

My goal for the run was to complete each mile in under 7 minutes. And with these Austin hills and my queasy stomach and the day's humidity, that turned into a nice challenge, but one I accomplished.

Here are the splits;

1 - 6:40 - The start is up Congress Avenue. Uphill, but it didnt feel bad.
2 - 6:44
3 - 6:54
4 - 6:32
5 - 6:33
6 - 6:44 - I didnt know Ceasar Chavez St. was uphill
.3 - 1:43 (5:37 pace!!!! - wooohoooo - I was flying!)

My pace per mile per Garmin was 6:38 on a course that measured 6.3 miles.

I was able to negative split here, with the first 5K in 21:00 and the second 5K in 20:19. The course, of course, was a little long per Garmin, so I had to run another 10th of a mile for good measure to finish, but oh well.

The interesting thing about this time is that, according to my recent half marathon times (1:31 at 3M and 1:32 at the Austin Half), 41:47 is exactly what I should be able to run for a 10k.

And not to sound greedy, but I felt like I left another 20 to 30 seconds on the course. I just was not feeling it at all today. I never ran hard enough to "suffer" until the last half mile. You know what I mean by "suffer?" I mean redline. I mean run so hard where you feel like you wanna puke, or where you doubt you can keep the pace for one more second. Like the way you may feel when you run a 5k.

No, I never "suffered" until the last half mile, but that's because, as I said earlier, I was feeling a little off physically, and so I ran conservatively because I didnt wanna crash and burn in the later stages of the race.