Medal #4, PR #4

I ran a 10-mile race this morning. I knew there would be one nasty hill lasting two miles before it flattened out but I didn’t let it bother me because I figured this would not be a PR race for me.

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My kids slept like crap last night. My youngest was in our bed by 12:45 followed by my oldest an hour later. My husband went to sleep with our big kid but he left his dad alone in his bed at 2:00 and returned to me. Whatever, just go to sleep. That started a cycle of being woken up every 40 minutes by my kids and it was truly terrible. Imagine fully waking up every 40 minutes between 12:45 and 6:45 the night before a 10-mile race. At 4:45, my big kid and I were both in tears over the situation (my lack of sleep caused my tears, my yelling caused his).

It.was.a.shit.show.

Come 6:45, I was up and getting ready to go and I was seriously considering dropping into the 5k race group. I could hardly even think, I was so tired. I got my husband up (who had slept alone from 2:00-7:00 what the hell?!?!) and told him I was probably running the 5k.

“You don’t need to decide until the split. Don’t decide now.”

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I found my old friend who is a crazy fast runner (sub-8:00 pace for 15 miles) and I told her I was considering the 5k.

“Courtney, come on. You know you can do the 10. So It’s not going to be a PR, just run it.”

Yeah, ok. I think so. God, I’m so tired.

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I was pacing fast with an average of 8:33 on my fitness band (which was off the mile markers by 0.06 miles) through mile 5 where I sat at 43:20 with a real 8:40 pace (adjusted to compensate the distance discrepancy).  Not at ALL what I expected. I didn’t think I could keep that pace but the group, overall, was so fast that I just kept with them. I passed some people but I was always in a group (key!). With 1 mile left, my band showed an average pace of 8:31 (not adjusted). Shit! I was picking up speed in the second half of the race… A SOLID negative split!

So, I took it home. I crossed the finish at 1:26:13 (second half of the race timed in at 42:53 with an 8:34.6 pace) with an average pace of 8:37… My fastest distance pace ever. A new distance PR by a long shot (last one was 9:04). Even if I’d had to do a half marathon (13.1 miles) today, I would have finished under my prior half PR because I was cruising and easily could have done 3.1 more miles at a 9:00 pace.

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I have no idea how I did it… I’m still so damn tired. Maybe that’s my secret weapon?

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Stats:

18/51 Women 40-44 (35.29%)
172/334 Overall Men and Women (51.5%)
62/175 Women (35.43%)