It was a chilly 44 degrees when we left home just after 8:00 am. I decided to run in shorts and short-sleeves. I about froze to death waiting in line at the port-a-johns before the 5 miler began at 9:00. The first mile was not too bad, and I ran it in 7:20. I was conflicted on to run to try to keep it under an 8:00 pace for the whole race, because the 10 miler was to follow. The faster I finished the longer I had to rest, too. Well, all of that thinking came to an end as I headed into Mile 2. It was uphill - not steep, but long, and the wind was blowing twice as hard as last weekend, when it was 20-30 mph. Mile 2 was 8:45. What a time killer! I finally got to turn around at Mile 2.5. With the wind at my back for the second half of Mile 3, I finished it in 8:27. Those 2 miles over 8:00 deflated my confidence, and I wanted to slow down. I decided to try to keep pace with the guy about 30 yards ahead of me. I finished Mile 4 in 7:51. Then it was into the wind again. I guess that is why Mile 1 wasn't too bad - the wind was behind me. Now, I had to finish the race running into it. Mile 5 was 8:14. My total time was 40:37, for a pace of 8:07. I won a bottle of wine for finishing first (of 3) in my age group. I finished 38 of 155 overall. (This was my 2nd fastest 5 miler ever. I ran a training run in October 2010 at 7:57).
Finishing in about 41 minutes gave me about 20 minutes to rest. I went to the vehicle, dried off a little, drank some PowerAde, and ate some chewy Life Savors. I then went to the port-a-john line. I didn't have to wait too long this time. I then went to the start/finish line. Sherri was wanting to finish the 5 miler in 12:00. I wasn't convinced she could do it, since she has never ran more than 3.1 miles. Those 5k's were in the 12 minute range, and she would be adding 2 miles. I thought I would have started the 10 miler by the time she finished, but we started about 15 minutes late, so I got to see Sherri finish in 1:00:47. She was just short of her goal. I think she could have done it if it wasn't for the wind and her having to stop to throw up. She tried pushing too much at the end to make sure she reached her goal and it cost her some time. She showed me, though!
For the 10 miler, the first 5 miles were the same route as the 5 miler, so Mile 1 was okay at 8:10. Then it was into the wind for about a mile-and-a-half. Mile 2 was 8:45. I was mad! I hate the wind! I knew it would get better after Mile 2.5, though. Mile 3 was 8:48. Mile 4 was slow considering I had some wind at my back at 8:38. Mile 5 was against the wind again and was 8:56. For Mile 6, we ran past the 5 miler finish line, so I was still running against the wind and finished it in 9:06. By Mile 7, I was getting tired. My left hamstring and calf felt a little sore, but it was between them behind the knee that was causing the most discomfort. I finished it a horrible 9:45. It just got worse - the pain was the same, the time is what suffered. Mile 8 was in 10:21. At about Mile 8.1 was a turnaround. The wind seemed to be blowing harder than ever. I refused to run into it, so I walked. I told myself that I would run when I wasn't heading directly into the wind. Well, the rest of Mile 9 was right into the wind, so it took me 13:34. At the mile marker, I thought I would run since it looked like the final mile would also be directly into the wind. I ran about half, walked the last third quarter-mile, and finished with a jog. Mile 10 was 10:22. My total time was 1:36:25, for a pace of 9:38. I finished 2nd of 2 in my age group (last year there were 5 in this age group). I was about 3 minutes behind the other runner. I'm sure he was one of the 20 or so that passed me while I was walking. I was a pathetic 67 of 86 overall. (This was my 8th fastest 10 miler. All the others were training runs, with the fastest being in September 2011 at 8:52).
Other people had good - great - experiences during the windy conditions. The following is from the http://www.tnrunning.com/turkeytrot/index.html website:
Despite the very windy conditions, we saw all four event records
tumble as Nashville's Ryan Snellen clocked 25:04 to win the 10-miler,
while Ryan Sheehan of Louisville,KY clocked 52:43 to win the men's
10-miler. On the women's side, Brentwood's Sonja Friend-Uhl, 40, ran
very impressively to win both races, clocking 28:59 in the 5-miler
and then bouncing back to clock a very impressive 1:00:38 to set new
Tennessee state records for the 40-44 age group for both distances.
Friend-Uhl already owned the 1 mile and 5k state records for 40-44 year-old females. See http://www.tnrunning.com/records/road/w_staterecords.html for more information.
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