After two years I came back to run in the Big Peach Sizzler 10K, although probably not at my best training.
When I ran in it in 2015, I started out way too fast and paid for it near the end, something that I decided to take into account today.
This year, I decided to leave home at 6:30 a.m. and park in the plentiful MARTA lots around the Chamblee station. I had enough time to do a warm-up of about three-quarters of a mile and then settled in well behind the 45-minute pace group.
When the gun sounded, I found my pace was pretty quick, so I dialed it back and tried to settle in for a good run. My first mile was 7:23. I'd hoped to run in the 7:15/7:17 range but I wasn't too discouraged since it was within 10 seconds.
The second mile of the rolling hills came and went and I ran that a little faster, at 7:20. By the third mile I ran a little slower, at 7:27 and I was starting to worry about my pace, which really fell off at 3.8 miles. My fourth mile was 7:51 followed by a fifth mile of 8:15. Lots of people passed me and I started to worry how much slower I would be and whether I would drop out.
During this time my right foot must have been swelling in my shoe (that has only had 16 miles on them) because my foot felt numb. In between footfalls I would move my big toe of that foot back and forth to give myself some circulation. Mile 6 was a little better, 7:39, and I ran the last .26 miles of the race at a 6:19/mile pace, for 47:39, about a minute slower than in 2015.
My training hasn't been great recently although now that it's fall I will have more time to put in more miles and speed. So I'm not too worried but this is a good wake-up call to work harder for the races ahead.
Time: 7:30 a.m.
Temp: 59 degrees
Gear: T-shirt, technical (Team BEEF), shorts, cep compression socks, Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4%.
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