It was going to be hot and humid. Start time was 8:45 am. We had just over an hour to drive to get to Cazenovia so I picked up my race packet at Fleet in Syracuse the day before. I don’t like picking up race packets from Syracuse. There seems to be never ending road work, detours, and Fleet is always busy. Still, I didn’t want it to come down to crunch time if we were late getting to Caz as I was unsure of the parking or how things were handled. As it turned out, parking and over all logistics were pretty easy.
As usual, I was miserable and anxious days before this 10 miler. I wanted my run to be good, fast, and a confidence builder for the Boilermaker. The weather being so warm and humid made me nervous. John said we should plan on a negative split but when looking at the course, I saw a considerable incline during those last few miles. I wasn’t sure what to do so I’d run conservative to start and hope I had something to run those negatives.
We lined up in front of the school. Everyone seemed to be running slow but my first mile was 8:34 and I was very comfortable. I picked it up a bit, still feeling ok at 8:14 pace for the 2nd mile. While talking to someone at the start, he said we turned just past the winery then the last 1/3 of the race was the toughest part. It was an incline without shade from the sun.
I had this in the back of my mind not to mention it was hot. Mile 3 was an 8:34 pace. Mile 4, 8:14, then an 8:18, and an 8:36 as I tried to slow it slightly. I was hoping to hit about an 8:15 and hold it but that didn’t happen. 8:31, 8:49, 8:49, the sun was hitting at this point and the course was rolling. I gave into a walk through a water stop. Pace was 9:02. Tried to make up for that short walk with a 8:20 pace for the next mile, then walked again coming up to the finishing turn at an 8:46 pace.
I was 2nd in my age group.
Not so shabby. 10 miles 8:36 per mile in 1:26:23. Not what I wanted going into the Boilermaker. It didn’t boost my confidence but it was a solid training run and I needed that. Once again, my recovery was almost instant after crossing the finish.
I felt so beat while on the course racing but once finished, I was fine. Still wondering why I can’t push harder?
Joanne