Independence Day 10K Race Report

I've decided to try my hand at a few road races again. It's been awhile. In fact, the last race I ran (excluding the Boston Marathon) was last September. September! I used to race every week! (That's probably why I burned out so badly.)

My running has been going well lately, so I wanted to go out and race just to see what I could do. I decided to run the Independence Day 10K at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis.

I've only done 2 10Ks in my entire life. One was a few years ago at Midnight Madness in Ames, IA. The bank clock at the start line showed 96 degress that night. Not ideal conditions. The other one was the Winter Carnival race I ran in January. It was supposed to be a half marathon, but the -21 degree temps forced race officials to shorten it to a 10K. Not ideal conditions.

I figured a PR was pretty much guaranteed today. I really had no goals other than to get my PR and see what I am capable of doing at this point in my training.

The course was 2 laps around Lake Harriet, which I figured would be good practice for next weeks Lifetime Fitness triathlon which ends with 2 laps around Lake Nokomis. The terrain was pretty flat with just a couple little hills on mile 2/5 (depending on what lap you're on).

Mile 1 - 6:59. I was wondering if I could run 7 minute miles, so this was a good starting point.
Mile 2 - 7:05. Still pretty good pace.
Mile 3 - 7:18. Still OK. I walked through a water stop on this mile. It was humid this a.m.!
Mile 4 - 7:07. Back on pace. Caught and passed the guy ahead of me.
Mile 5 - 7:14. Um, not sure why I slowed down so much. Oh well, whatever.
Mile 6 - 7:16. No excuses for the slow pace here either. Guess I was just ready to be done.
0.2 miles - 1:24. Crossed the finish line in 44:25 (unoffical time)

My previous 10K PR was 48:19, so I was pretty happy with my time today. My overall average pace came to 7:09 which I'm definitely pleased with.

In Iowa, there aren't too many 10K distance races. Most of the races are 5Ks or 8Ks. I was happy to realize that my 5 mile split this morning would also have been an 8K PR by almost 1 minute! Pretty cool to be that much faster than I was last year. Hopefully it will continue to pay off in my triathlons.

I'm off to continue enjoying my holiday weekend. Hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday!