My plan was to go out at an 8:00 pace and try and pick it up after mile 2 if possible. There was a climb before mile 4 and I knew I'd slow a bit there, but then it was all downhill - I wanted to punch it towards the end.
Wake up call: 6:15 AM. I drove down to Santa Monica and jogged towards the start line about a mile away (it's a point to point, so I parked near the finish.) I ran into my bro Eric from the LA Tri Club - we visited for a bit while the DJ at the start was trying WAY too hard...poor guy.
At 8 AM sharp we were off. I tried to position myself towards the front - this is new for me! I settled into a nice 8 minute pace, sometimes going into the high 7s a bit. The first mile was through Main Street SM - nice. At around 1 mile I saw my pal Billy running with his cousin. He had mentioned he might come by and I was thrilled to see a friendly face (two if you count his cuz!) We exchanged pleasantries and I carried on down to Ocean Ave. Definitely a false flat between miles 1.5-3...but I chugged on! I had my Garmin set to Time, Pace and Average Pace. I wanted to keep the overall average pace below 8 to reach my goal of breaking 50 minutes. In the back of my mind I would have loved to break 48...but this being my first 10k just wanted to try hard.
Between miles 3-4 we climbed about 100 vertical feet on San Vicente. It sounds like nada, but this was a little rough for me trying to keep pace. I slowed just a tad and was definitely feeling it at the turnaround. I flew down that hill though! I also ran into my buddy Bill Lockton who was watching the race in front of his house.
The final 2 miles was a gentle downhill and at the 5 mile mark there was Billy and his cuz again! I was definitely struggling to hang on at this point, but Billy decided to run with me! Pretty cool! I was definitely kicking it as hard as I could - it was downhill after all. Billy peeled off at the 6 mile mark and that last .2 felt like FOREVER! But I made it - Garmin time = 48:11.
What a great experience. Love the shorter distance - it definitely breaks you in a different way! Next week I'm in SB for screenings of my film and then running the SB Wine Country Half Marathon. I was originally hoping for the low 1:50s (which would be a big PR) but seeing the LA Marathon is 3 weeks away I'm thinking of going a little easier - perhaps sub 2:00 (still a PR)
Here are my splits for today's race...
Mile 1: 8:00, 166 HR
Mile 2: 7:48, 177 HR
Mile 3: 8:00, 181 HR
Mile 4: 8:03, 185 HR
Mile 5: 7:26, 185 HR
Mile 6: 6:34 (!) 189 HR
Last .2 (on the Garmin it's .34...) 2:16, 192 HR
Chip Time: 48:11.7
Age Group: 40/167
Overall: 270/1663
Pics courtesy of Billy Burger:
Mile 5 - not smiling!
Home stretch! The hardest .2 ever...
