Race Report: Women Run The Cities 10 Mile

I am going to keep this race report brief as it is already overdue and I am running another 10 mile race this Sunday!

I signed up for Women Run The Cities for four reasons.
1. One of my favorite local trail races, the surley loppet half marathon, was already full.
2. I love all female events.
3. The start and finish line is only two miles from my house (perfect distance for an easy warm up).
4. Breaking up a training cycle with local distance races keeps me motivated.

I didn't have a concrete race plan, but I approached the race as a training run.  This means no PR-ing (unless I feel downright incredible and a PR pace feels like floating on air which is highly unlikely).  That said, I wanted to feel tired at the end of the race to mimic the fatigue I should feel during the last stretches of a goal race.  To accomplish this, I left home extra earlier and jogged over to the start line, a nice and easy two mile warm up.  I always love running and biking through the neighborhoods early in the morning.  There is something so peaceful about households waking up, turning on the coffee, and taking in the brisk autumn air as they go out to collect the paper.

Oh right...I said this report was going to brief.  Oh dear.

I wore my garmin but I decided to run by feel and resisted looking at my pace.  I took the first few miles nice and easy (by the time the race started, I had cooled down from my "warm up" so I had to warm up all over again...ah, the benefits of old age).  I passed a few pace groups but I resisted checking out the pace.  I just wanted to listen to my body.  Coming up to the turn around beneath the overpass (around mile 4), I saw a running friend of mine on the other side.  I decided I would catch up to her and stick with her for a while so I wouldn't be pressured into pushing my pace.  This was a good goal since I would have to tackle a long gradual hill in order to reach her.  It gave me something to think about!  I caught up to my friend and paced her through mile 8.5.  It was wonderful to catch up because she is something like a running mom mentor.  She is just turned 50 and she is in great shape!  We talked runner mom philosophy and then parted ways so I could kick it in a bit during the last mile and half.

I felt pretty strong as I was cruising toward the finish.  There were a couple other women striding in so I tried to stick with them.  It helped to remind myself that I ran a speedy 5k at the end of triathlon only a month or so before so I had a kick in me.

Race results: 18/108 in my division.

Not a PR- but that's a good thing.  :)