Hell to Pay 10K

Before I can sit down and write my blogpost on Death Valley I have to announce that I want to retire from the 10K distance. I ran the Human Race 10K today, I renamed it the Hell to Pay 10K, and it reminded me of why it's been 7 years since the last time I ran a 10K. I hate that distance, and today was no different.

I used to love 10Ks, I don't know why, maybe because I was good at them? Maybe it's because it's the first race distance I ever ran and there were so many of them back in the 1980s. Now they just hurt, I can't go fast anymore, and it's prolonged torture. This morning it was cool, in the 60s, and humid. The sun never came out from behind the clouds, which was nice. The first two miles were a gradual uphill grade up Mountain Avenue, a quick trip through the cemetery, then slightly down Taft Hill Road, then a good half mile drop, then the bike path for 2 miles, and then, at mile 5, a twisty, junked up portion of the race course through the flooded area of the Poudre Trail from this spring. It was dirt, sand, rocks, and very soft. Not a fast surface at all. Then it emerged uphill from the Poudre Trail, back down Mason, and completing the loop at Civic Center Park.

When the alarm went off this morning I didn't want to get up. I need to catch up on sleep. But I got up anyway, it was 4:50 am, I had coffee and got my butt down to sign up for the race and warm up for a couple of miles. On my warmup I felt terrible, I could not move. My legs felt tired and stiff.

When the race started, I ran okay the first two miles, 7:56 and 8:06, but then when we started heading downhill, first thing that happened was my shoe came untied, so I had to bend over and tie it, a stupid thing, but I was so out of it this morning that I guess I didn't tie my shoes very well.

As we went downhill, my pace got even slower. I could not take advantage of the downhill grade, the legs simply would not turn over. I felt like I was running in concrete. I considered walking. But I kept going, kept pushing as hard as I could, I was noticing the labored breathing of people passing me while my breathing was just fine, but my legs would not move. I was averaging 8:20s or slower the rest of the way. It sucked. I just wanted to get it over with, and I pulled up to the finish in 51:53 which is a dismal, disappointing time for me. But at least it was faster than what I would have run if I just went out by myself. I did get a decent tempo run in.

Ugh. I am glad I stuck to my plan of waking up and doing the race, but I need to not worry about the time. It was definitely not a good day for me to be racing.

As it turned out I placed second in my age group and got a ceramic coaster...how convenient- for beer! I'll need a beer after that!

I am going to get to the business of writing my blogpost and taking a good nap. It's a cool, overcast day and should be great for sleeping. Check back later...