Saturday was the Moses Lake Police Department 10K Run For Your Life fun run. I had a goal to come in at 41 minutes (a 6:36 pace). It was a down and back with a turn around half-way for the 5K runners. From the start of the race I quickly fell into third place with first and second far ahead of me and fourth far behind me. My first mile was a bit to fast (6:23 mile) so I slowed down a bit so I could finish strong. At 1.55 miles (the 5K turnaround) I was surprised to see the two runners ahead of me turn around - they were 5K runners! From that point on I held a commanding lead of first place for the 10K, but more important to me was hitting the 41 minute goal.
Miles 2 and 3 were just about perfect on my pace (one just below and one right on the 6:36 pace). But mile four I began to feel the work I had put in for the first three miles. I slowed down a bit to hit a 6:46 pace. With only two miles to go, and no one near me, I started pushing harder to hit my goal. Mile 5 and 6 came in good with just under a quarter mile to go to the finish. I saw the clock on the finish line from about a tenth of a mile away ticking closer and closer to 41 minutes. With a sprint to the end I watched the clock tick: 58, 59, 00, and I crossed the finish line as I saw the number 01 show up. Even my GPS watch agreed: 41:01. I had missed my goal by 1 second! Excited about first place, but disappointed at how the one second mocked me at the finish line.
However, I had forgotten something very important about the race timing. It was chip timed. My time didn't officially start until I crossed the start line, which apparently took me three seconds to do! My official time from crossing the start to crossing the finish was 40:58!!!! I had beaten my goal time by three seconds and blown my old 10K record out of the water by two minutes forty seconds! Getting first overall was nice, but not nearly as exciting as improving my 5K by so much! I still need to cut 1:58 off my time to qualify for second seed on bloomsday next year, but I'm getting much closer!
(this race was probably much easier to win as there was also a triathlon and a duathon happening at the same time that pulled several of the competitive runners out of the race. Also many of the faster runners in town are training for a marathon together and race day was a rest day on the marathon schedule so they either ran the 5K - like the two who were ahead of me for the first 1.55 miles, or didn't run at all. Either way - first is first :-D)
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