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

Print Friendly, PDF & Email