This past weekend I participated in the
Perfect 10 miler all
women’s race. This was the inaugural year for what appears to be an annual
event and very popular all women’s run.
As an organizer of another all women’s race,
Beauty and Beach Run, I am very acutely aware of what goes into producing and
delivering a great event for women.
The
Perfect 10 miler did not disappoint.
 |
last mile at the Perfect 10 miler |
Race
Course: Most of the race was held within
Mercer County Park, which is a beautiful park with sports fields, a lake, nice
running paths a great place to hold a race.
There are some small rolling hills and it was a little windy this past
weekend, but other then that the conditions were perfect over-cast and in the
50s.
The race organizer did a phenomenal
job in paying attention to the small details.
Things such as bow tie men at the star line cheering us on, pacers for
ladies trying to hit their goals, to the bands and music on the race course, it
gives the ladies a great experience. Post race was an excellent party filled
with music, beer and wine area with even coffee and hot chocolate!
Race
Details: 10 miles is a challenging distance, since you do not want to go out at
your crazy hard 5k sprint pace, but you need to go out harder then your haft marathon
settle in pace.
My coach,
Mel Fink, and I
had a plan to start at a 6:50 pace for first 6 miles than drop to a 6:40
pace.
At the start line I was talking to
a few of the ladies just seeing where people were at so that I can find someone
to pace off of and there were a few of us that were all within that range or so
they said.
Of course the gun went off
and all bets were off and all of sudden we were charging out of the gate at a blistering
6:10 pace.
I knew I was in trouble as
this was not my plan.
As I settle back
in, a group of us started to separate and I tried to relax into a slower pace
then what my first mile was.
I passed
fellow
NJ Tri Devil Aaron Levine who pointed out to me “so much for not being
motivated” (As I had mention to him that the day before I lacked motivation) as
I ran by him I let him in on a little known fact amongst my close friends and
family that I am just not right in the head and once the gun goes off – switch
clicks in my mind ….game time GO!.
Taking some off season nutrition advice from Brian Shea of
PBN, I fueled
for this event with a more simple strategy for a hard hour-ish effort.
We triathletes get into our modes of fueling
every workout like we are heading out for a 100 mile ride, or to tackle a full
marathon.
So through the aide stations I
grab some water and had a
GU gel at mile 4 and then around mile 7 I was really
starting to hurt.
I had an extra gel and
just took a little bit off the top, this technically did nothing for me besides
appease my head as the fuel really did not get to my muscles until close to
mile 9, but my head and legs were happy in that moment.
In the end I finished 1 spot off the overall podium
in 4
th place pretty much the worst place to be, but I exceeded my
anticipation in the run with an average of 6:43 pace over 10 miles.
Pushing myself at that pace for 10 miles was
a great learning experience and confident boost I needed, for the head case I
am, with marathon training starting up soon.
Unfortunately I have not yet figured out how to overcome the 17 seconds
which was the difference between 1
st and 2
nd at
Vineman70.3 and at Perfect 10 the difference between 3
rd and 4
th
(off the podium) was 16 seconds.
I hope
to figure out how I can reach inside and find this gap for my next race.