Dosta Dash 10k Recap!

I had been very excited for this race for quite a while.  As I’ve said before, it’s one of the very few 10k’s we have here and I had several really good runs leading up to it.  I started to get a bit obsessive about it last week with checking the weather, downloading new music that had the right beats per minutes to keep me going, making sure all my gadgets had 100% charge, and thinking about it ALL THE TIME! Friday night I was feeling great, my legs were nice and loose, we had a delicious light meal and all was going right.  We were sitting on the couch unwinding and getting ready for bed when Brice decided that he was going to get sick and throw up all over Colin and then me.  After showers and clothing changes for everyone it was off to bed.  I brought Brice to our bed because I knew if there was any hope of me getting any sleep (instead of obsessively listening for the slightest sound of him getting sick through the monitor) our bed was the right choice.  Maybe we should have just slept in the bathtub because he got sick several more times.  SO that alarm Saturday morning came VERY early!  Fortunately, Colin’s parents came to visit for the weekend so Colin’s mom stayed home with Brice; otherwise I would not have been running because I wasn’t going to leave my sick baby with just anyone.  He was very much asleep when we left so I felt pretty sure that he was feeling better.  After rolling out of bed and getting dressed I had a shot of espresso and this beautiful looking everything bagel with Simply Fruit apricot jam on top.

I had picked up our race numbers on Friday after work so we just made sure to get to the race with enough time for us to get a nice little warm up jog in before race start.  When we got there, I was a little disappointed in the number of people.  This race usually brings a large crowd but when I talked to a girl at packet pickup she said they only had about 115 registered.  I think our city is over saturated with 5k’s though.  There is one practically every weekend, but I was hoping all the normal 5k participants would step up and run the 10k.  Oh, well!  Well we lined up at the start at about 7:55 so we had to wait around for a few minutes because they didn’t want to start it anymore than 2 minutes early.  They called out finishing times and had people step up if they thought they would fall into that classification.  That was my time to look around and see who my competition would be.  Since the 5k and 10k run the first loop together I had to look at people’s race numbers. (5k’s were all in the 100’s and 10k’s were all in the 900’s) I was able to spot a few 10k’s but saw that most of the others were running the 5k.  At 7:58 off we went!  As usually I jumped the gun a little bit and went out too fast.  I quickly adjusted though and fell back just a tad.  When I did this a few people passed me but I saw they were running the 5k so I kept telling myself to just stick to my race plan.  The first two miles felt great and I was right where I wanted to be.  Mile 3 was  more difficult because it was a steady incline the whole way.  No crazy hills or anything but enough of any incline to make you work.  (I live in south Georgia, we don’t have hills of any sort) I knew I just needed to keep my pace steady because all I kept thinking about was having to run this part of the course on the second loop when I would be between miles 5-6. At this point there was one lady ahead of me that I had my eye on.  From the start she was never out of my sight but just far enough ahead that I knew I would have to work to catch her.  When I got closer to the turn around point I started counting people.  Here comes Colin in 4th place out of the guys!!! 

 That blurry white spot is Colin.  I yelled to him that he was in 4th and he gave me a little dance.  Not too many people back from Colin was his dad and right behind him was the lady in first place.  That lady can run! Her whole family are runners and it’s her husband that does owns the timing company that works all the area races.  They are some speedy people! At the turn around/5k point my overall time was 25:20 with splits of 8:06, 8:11, and 8:12.  I was feeling good and knew I had to keep my head in the game and pick things up a little bit if I wanted to reach my goal. All week I kept thinking about coming in under 50 minutes.  I just wanted to see a 4 be the first number, so being at 25:20 half way meant I would need to run the second half faster than I ran my PR 5k two weeks ago.  One of my strengths though is that I have endurance.  I’m not the fastest 5k runner but I can hold my pace.  Knowing exactly what the course was going to be like helped me a lot.  I stayed steady through the next mile and then when I hit 4.2 miles I just kept telling myself only 2 more miles, 2 more miles.  The lady I had my sight on was still about the same distance up ahead so I knew it was time to make my move.  I gradually picked up my pace and passed a couple of people, included a group of Air Force ROTC guys who were doing their run chants which was fun to hear.  At 5.5 miles I was right behind her and decided to make my move.  She picked up her pace quite a bit too so I just stayed right on her shoulder hoping I would have enough in me to push to the finish.  Working in my favor though, she wasn’t able to hold that pace and fell back, I slowed down too to stay right there with her until there was only a quarter-mile to go.  Then I pushed and gave it all I had.  Colin had come back around to run with me, and I must say I don’t think he expected to find me so close to the finish. 🙂  I wasn’t even checking my watch at this point but when I rounded the corner to the finish and say the time said 49:10 I was ecstatic (and exhausted!) I ended up finishing in 49:44 (unofficially according to my watch, results aren’t posted yet) My second half splits were 8:07, 7:53, 7:36 and a pace of 6:54 for the last .24.  

Colin ran a great race too and finished in about 42:40.  I know he didn’t push 100% for this race like I did because we’re only three weeks out from his half Ironman and now is no time to risk injury!! Also he spent several hours on his bike the day before, so I’m very impressed with his time.  I’m can’t wait for his 70.3 and to see how he crushes it.  Colin’s dad also ran a great race and came in around the 45 minute mark to win his age group!

 After a good walk around and me deciding I wasn’t going to fall over and pass out I made a trip over to the water/food table. That is when I saw these and everything was right in the world.

 After getting some water and a donut, okay maybe two, I felt much better.  We hung around talking for a while until the awards ceremony because I wanted to get my medal.  2nd female finisher and 1st in my age group.  To be honest, I think I was the only person in my age group that ran the 10k, but regardless I’m pretty darn proud of my 2nd place overall finish! I think the 10k might be my new favorite distance.  I definitely do better in races longer than a 5k, but I also really enjoyed the 15k I did last October.  I need to find a few more races of this distance close by so I can really decide which is my favorite.
After we ALL got our medals we rushed home to go see Brice!  We had heard from Colin’s mom and knew that he woke up happy so that made me feel better.  We recovered with a delicious brunch at home and then during nap time (Brice’s) I treated myself to an iced coffee and some sunshine!   It felt sooo good to just lay in the backyard and sip on my iced coffee.  Colin and I discussed some plans for the backyard and mine were more along the lines of planting a tree and a little garden.  His idea was to have a single lane lap pool put in the whole length of our yard….
I’d say that this is the face of a little boy who is feeling MUCH better!!

What is your favorite distance race and why??