Holliston 10K Road Race

As part of my coaching, I am supposed to run a race every month either as a fitness check or workout to get used to racing so I am not as nervous and it takes a lot of the pressure away of only racing a few times a year.  The only race I could find that would fit in the schedule was a small local 10K which I had high hopes for.  However leading up to the race I was really struggling with some knee issues from running a hard time trial on the track which left me with tightness and general pain in my right knee. My coach and I had talked about just running it as a tempo workout and I good with that but I felt pretty good that morning so it turned into a little bit of a mixed run.

The race went out right around my 10K pace which is what caught me off guard slightly as I didn't expect to be in the lead pack, so we ran together for about 2 miles and then two guys broke off and just straight had a gear I didn't. After that I let off the gas a little and was going to settle back into tempo pace which I did for a mile, then I realized it was just 2 of us left in the chase pack for some reason so I picked it up as I was feeling good.  I was back on 10K pace in mile 5 until we hit a hill that everyone failed to mention which was like 6% grade for about 1/3 of a mile. I felt strong though in the hill and ended up dropping the other chaser and cruised home. I was surprised as to how strong I felt in that last mile and it helped my confidence a ton. I definitely think I could carry 6:00-6:10 pace for the entire 10K next time.

I ended up finishing 3rd overall in 39:08 (6:02, 6:10, 6:37, 6:20, 6:30, 6:02), slightly off my 10K equivalent time (38:12) but I was pretty happy overall as it was a relatively hilly course (in addition to the one big hill) and it was 70-75 degrees outside. I certainly could have run faster in the middle sections of the race had I not slowed down to tempo pace for a little bit. This was the first race in a long time where I felt fresh and strong so I am quite optimistic about the direction my training is headed.