Arny Johnson 10 Mile Classic

Okay, so I've postponed this report long enough.

Some minor changes though. I looked at the updated list of names from the race on the website and saw that my time was 1:23:48, not 1:24. Also, even though they gave me a second place finisher in AG medal, it looks like I was third. I wonder what happened to the woman that took first. I didn't see or hear her complaining at the awards ceremony that she didn't get anything. Maybe she was disqualified for some reason? I hope not.

I was a little concerned at the start of this race because as some of you know I was approaching burnout all week. I toned my running down to taper for this race(hadn't planned on it prior to last week, but knew I needed it), so I only ran Tuesday and Wednesday. I stayed up late again the night before and was very tired. Slept on the way over to the race which was an hour away. I REALLY didn't feel like running this race let alone racing it. But I knew once I started I'd be fine. I just didn't know how much energy I'd have.

The night before the race was very, very windy and I was hoping it would die down before the race but I don't think it would have made too much difference since most of the race was through the woods. It was overcast and mid 30's. Perfect day for a race. Donned my baseball cap, gloves, long-sleeved wicking shirt and shorts and I was good to go.

The first 3 miles were pretty uneventful and fairly flat. Eighty percent of the race was on a paved running/biking path. We were told to stay to the left of the path and watch out for bikers which I thought was rather strange. Why the left side? This race wasn't in Europe!

Since the race was through the woods, my Garmin wouldn't register at all. I'm sure the cloudy day didn't help in that dept. either. I do know my first mile was 8:08(whoa, slow down Nellie). Not what I wanted to hear. But after a couple more miles I settled into a groove. I knew last year my pace was around 8:30/mile so this year I wanted to do a little better than that and ended up with a 8:21/mile pace.

After mile 3 the course started to get interesting. I knew by the elevation chart that we would be steadily going up and down hills. A gal pulled up beside me and we talked for a few minutes. Seems she had just started racing for the first time after her son was born.....four years ago! I guess her hands have been full? She was keeping a pretty good pace so I told her good luck and have fun. My goal was to try to keep her in my sights if I could. After she passed me her pace must have slowed a bit because she stayed ahead of me by only about 10 yds. I ended up catching up to her at about mile 7 but she could really fly down the hills and I ended up getting way behind her again. She said after the race that she slowed way down the last two miles. She finished approx. 1 minute ahead of me.

I really didn't mind the hills because this is where I caught up to most people. I guess it pays to train on hills. The only time it really bothered me was towards the end of the race when I was tired. One of the last hills I had to run on my tiptoes it was so steep. I can't say I'm used to THAT steep of hills.

At the one mile marker there was a fellow runner that is in my running group. I noticed him and said hi. He has recently been coming back from an injury so he wasn't running the race. Towards the end of the race around mile 7 I saw somebody running towards me in jeans. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw it was him. I told him he was going to get so chaffed but he didn't seem to care. He told me at mile 9 marker that he would let me finish by myself since he could tell how I was breathing that I still had alot in me. I didn't feel like it....but maybe I wasn't working as hard as I could. I had pointed out to him that I wanted to keep this other woman ahead of me in my sights and that I had spoken to her for a while. He asked me if I had asked her if she's in my age group. I said no, that didn't concern me. He laughed and said, it may later! Well, he was right. The woman I let stay in my sights but didn't make a move on was in my age group. Grrrr! Oh well, I really don't feel like I could have run it any faster anyway.

I was very happy with my race and my 10 mile time. It was a nice surprise when I finished.

I know there was probably more, but I guess I should have written this report after the race and not several days later.