Race report - Harvest Heart 10k

So ... what is there to say, really? It was really hard. I know I'm supposed to be happy and proud and all, but for some reason I'm really bummed at how slow I was. Just under 13 minute miles, on average. Partly I never tried to go fast, because I wanted to make sure I finished and didn't burn out too soon (like the guy who quit after mile 2.) Partly I was still a little sore and achy from Friday's stupid workout. But mostly, I'm just REALLY SLOW. I've been doing some speed work but obviously I need to do more. My fastest mile was the first, at 11:19 or so. My next-fastest was the 3rd (or was it the 4th) at 11:46. The others were well over 12, and the last one was a full 17 minutes.

Me, post-race.

It wasn't the weather - it was cool and cloudy for most of the time. The sun came out and I got pretty warm by the end, but I was never overheated.

Maybe it was the hills. I mapped this course and compared it to the Sharon Classic. For the first five miles they were almost identical in elevation change -- total climb 269 feet today, 265 in Sharon - I don't think that 4 feet took 2 minutes off my time!

Maybe it was race prep. I ate eggs and toast at 8am, and a peanut butter sandwich on multigrain around 10:3o. I addeed a pria powerbar at 11, and had about 4 glasses of water over the course of the morning. I had half a bottle of off-the-shelf accelerade in the minutes leading up to the start, and a chocolate (caffeinated) gu. I drank plenty on the way, too, and had a second gu at about the 4th mile. I never felt hungry, nor overfull,

Maybe it was carrying that water bottle on my back - it feels heavy, even half-empty, and throws off my balance. I've ordered the one with the 4 little bottles that are distributed evenly around the body - we'll see how that one is.

My knees were OK, my shoes didn't bother me. I had some decent tunes playing (K.T. Tunstall's new album has great running songs!) So - no excuses, I just ran slower.

But - attitude adjustment needed: I just ran a 10k race - something I never even dreamed of before this year.
Maybe it's time to get a coach! (Oh, and this winter will be a good time to rearrange and redecorate the blog - now that I'm clearly in this for the blong haul might as well make it look a little nicer!)