RRCA 10 Mile Challenge

This morning I ran the RRCA 10 Mile Challenge, a race put on by the Howard Country Striders. The race serves as a team championship of sorts for the local running clubs, as team compete for what was described as "the world's ugliest traveling trophy" (or something like that). To be honest, my biggest incentive for running the race was that my club paid my entry fee since I competed for the team.

My goal for the race was to start out conservatively, 6:15-6:20 pace, and finish strong. I started out at what felt right, but was actually faster than I thought. The third mile marker was the first one I saw, (Note to race directors: please make your mile markers visible. The mile markers today were small yellow signs about six inches high.) and I passed it in 18:02. I was surprised to be running that fast at what felt like a slower pace. My next three miles were 6:22, 5:56 and 6:22. I'm not sure what my split was at seven or nine miles, but I reached mile eight in 49:25 and finished in 1:02:00. I felt like I picked up the pace for the last two miles, but my time doesn't really reflect it. Maybe it just felt faster because I was tired.

The net result of my race was a 45th place finish and a 10-mile PR by 36 seconds. The PR was a bit of a shock. The course, at least for the middle miles, was fairly rolling, and I haven't done any speedwork except for the one other race I had run this year before today. Today's race bodes well for Cherry Blossom, which is a much faster course.