The Sporting Life 10k this past Sunday was honestly one of my best racing experiences ever. I didn't have high hopes going in, considering I didn't get home from work until midnight and I had to leave for the start line at 6:15 am. I woke up feeling pretty good for four hours of sleep, and made my way to the start line absolutely buzzing with nerves.
This was a huge race, so the start line was insane. I got there pretty close to the gun time, so ended up having to start towards the end of the 2nd wave despite wanting to be near the front of it. After taking longer than I wanted to cross the line I didn't really have anymore problems, though. It was crowded, but the road was wide so I had lots of room to pass people.
My A Goal going in was to beat my 47:32 PB, and my goal pace based on my workouts was 4:40/km. I ran the first kilometre in 4:41 without even feeling like I was running fast, so that was a great confidence booster. I stayed on pace the next few kilometres, and while I started feeling like I was working, it was still easier than I thought it would be up to the halfway point.
The sixth kilometre was definitely the lowest point of the race mentally. It was my slowest split at 4:47 and the only time I really considered the possibility of not reaching my goal.
Things turned around at the 7 km mark when I realized I could run 5:00 minute pace for the rest and still finish well under my goal. Ironically, this led me to speed up considerably and revise my A Goal to sub 47:00.
From that point on, I was running HARD. My last three splits were 4:25, 4:17, 4:28. By the last kilometre, I was barely hanging on but I knew I wasn't going to slow down so close to the end.
I rounded a corner and the finish line came into sight. I glanced at the message I'd written on my hand as a reminder and sped up as much as I could for the last stretch. I crossed the line with my hands over my head like I was breaking the tape, and almost had a heart attack when I checked my watch and saw 45:49 (45:44 chip time).
Running sub 46:00 was something I vaguely considered before taking two weeks off training for my ankle. After that, it never entered my mind again. I knew my PB was out of date, but crushing it by 1:48 is an accomplishment I'm carrying with me for a long time
