Today's Super Bowl Sunday Run was my first 10K of the year and my first entry into this event. I ran on Super Bowl Sunday last year, but I ran the Folsom race (not held this year). The run was held at Sacramento State University, and a good-sized crowd showed up.
It was a bit cool this morning when I got up (36º) but it was expect to warm up to 46º by race time. Unfortunately the fog failed to burn off by the start of the run (and didn't burn off until I was finished) making for quite a cool run. On one hand it was nice not having to worry about overheating. On the other, while getting sweaty in the cold just makes you even colder.
The start could have been better organized in my opinion. There were enough runners there that lining up by expecting pace would have been nice. I tried to lineup mid-pack thinking that's where I belonged, but I spent the first couple minutes of the run trying to quickly pass a lot of the runners in front of me while staying out of the way of the runners behind me that were faster.
Regardless, I got off to a hot start without overdoing it. I knew to set a new personal record (my 10K was 53:05) that I'd have to average 8:32½ per mile. I wanted to finish the first mile in under 8:30 but not too close to 8:00. I was pleased when my GPS watch informed me that I finished it in 8:24.
Usually when I have a good run, my second mile is ~5 seconds better than my first and is the best of the run. Knowing that, I tried to pick up my pace a bit to get a quality second mile. I did better than 5 seconds finishing the second mile in 8:16. From there I tried not to fall off too much. My third and fourth miles were excellent: slower than the second but faster than the first. I started slowing down during the fifth and focused on staying below 8:40. Midway through the sixth mile, we passed the Grant High Drum Line, and the beat must have got me going again as my sixth mile was better than the first. I ran hard for the final 0.2 miles, but was so focused on catching one last person I didn't check the time clock nor stop my watch at the line (I remembered to stop it ~30-45 seconds later).
Even with stopping the watch late, I knew I had a new personal record. Here's my mile-by-mile breakout compared to the target pace to get 53:04.9 (which would have been a new PR by 0.1 seconds):
| Pace | +/- | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mile | Target | Actual | Mile | Overall |
| 1 | 08:32.6 | 08:23.8 | +8.8 | +8.8 |
| 2 | 08:32.6 | 08:16.3 | +16.3 | +25.0 |
| 3 | 08:32.6 | 08:18.1 | +14.5 | +39.5 |
| 4 | 08:32.6 | 08:23.6 | +9.0 | +48.4 |
| 5 | 08:32.6 | 08:38.1 | -5.5 | +42.9 |
| 6 | 08:32.6 | 08:19.8 | +12.8 | +55.7 |
| + | 01:49.5 | 01:38.4 | +11.1 | +66.8 |
I ran my first 10K a year ago (except for a 7 mile race I did a few years ago when I was 29) and I would not have believed at the time that such a time as the one I ran today would have been possible for me. Also seems unbelievable over the course of the year that I cut out nearly 8½ minutes from my 10K time. Here's my badge for this race:
I decided to add a new line to the badges to indicate records (for this one, "New 10K Personal Record"). I'm not sure that the color is quite right for it yet (and maybe the positioning needs to be better), but I like the idea of noting things like that (also potentially noting event records when I reran an event).
One nice touch done by the organizers of today's run was having a professional football player (Jahvid Best - Detroit Lions running back) on hand to help with starting the "Future Stars 40-Yard Dash" as well as counting down to the start of the 10K. Best also signed autographs after the run, and when I passed by where he was, there were just a few people in line, so I joined them. I had hoped there'd be some sort of promotional picture for him to sign, but since there wasn't, I had him sign my bib:
Still pretty cool, but getting a picture signed would have been better. I had checked eBay for pictures of Best when I heard he was coming but had decided against buying one. If I do this run next year, and they once again have a player as a special guest, I will buy a photo in advance.
All-in-all, I enjoyed the Super Bowl Sunday Run and would do it again. Of course, it's hard to be upset with any event in which I set a new PR.
No comments:
Post a Comment