A race without Transitions

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.