I decided the Wednesday of race week to sign-up for the 10k race. It was my forst 10k running race and with the goal of an Olympic triathlon distance this summer it was a perfect time to see where my pace and endurance levels were at.
The morning of the race was chilly but turned out to be great once we started running. The course is fast and perfect for setting PR’s. It was great to see the team there leading us out onto the course. Just prior to the start I was able to take a picture of the team volunteer’s and thank them for coming out and volunterring their time.
The start of the race was on the Lakeview HS track. We went 3/4 of the way around the track before heading off onto the strret. As a tech consultant, I have been trained to plan “go-live’s” and I treat race days in the same manner. Pre-race checklist, estimate race time based on training times, etc. For this race, I was planning on a 9 min mile pace. In order to help me stay on pace, I set a 10k workout on my Garmin 910 to keep a pace between 9:00 and 9:05. From the start of the race my watch was alarming to let me know i was heading out too fast. I was at an 8:23 pace as i was leaving the track to head out on the road and managed to start slowing my pace.
As i made my way around the course, I was hoping I was not annoying other runners with my watch alarm. I was maintaining a a faster pace than what i had set but I was feeling comfortable and strong in the run and made it a challenge to stay under the targets I had set in the watch. As we made our way back to the HS, I got a photo opp from Nikki Elder (Thank you) and got encouragement from our team of riders.
As it turned out, I finished second in my age group. I missed the award ceremony because it was opening day for Avery’s LYA team. It was a pleasant surprise to receive a medal in the mail about a week after the event. My kids thought it was pretty cool!
Male 35 to 39
Total
Place Name City Bib No Age Overall Time Pace
1 Eric Greene Battle Creek MI 159 39 2 46:15 7:28/M
2 Robby Robertson Battle Creek MI 116 37 18 53:53 8:41/M