This weekend, my Business Man & I traveled home to visit our families. It has become our little tradition to head home the weekend of the Pumpkin Fest - the cooler temps have usually just arrived, there's pumpkin goodies all around, and of course, I get to race the Pumpkin Classic 10km. It's the perfect way to kick off fall.
We got home late Friday night, and after a short night's sleep, we were up bright & early for the 10km. I know I haven't been blogging much about my training this fall (slacker!), but I've been putting in lots of hard work. Long runs, interval sessions, tempo runs. I was really excited to race yesterday morning, to see what kind of shape I was in. (I hadn't raced seriously since July 4.)
My momma came along to walk the 2-mile, and my Business Man came to cheer us both. (My dad had to work, or he would've been there, too.) The weather was perfect - 50s and sunny, perfect for racing.
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| Mom & I at the start, looking excited! |
Last year I ran 40:53, so my goal for this year's race was to break 40:00. It seemed pretty daunting, like one of those "someday" goals, but I thought I'd give it a try. Little did I know.
I decided to try to run 6:25 splits, because that would give me a little wiggle room if I needed it toward the end.
Here's the splits:
- Mile 1 - 6:14
- Mile 2 - 6:22
- Mile 3 - 6:21
- Mile 4 - 6:19
- Mile 5 - 6:14
- Mile 6 - 6:13 plus the last 0.2 in 1:15.
For a final finish time of... 38:58! A 6:17 average. Seriously, I was flabbergasted with myself. I was 1st female and 9th overall.
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| Post-race excitement. |
I felt so relaxed the first three miles of the race. I kept wondering to myself, "How can I possibly be running these splits?! I feel so good!" I told myself to keep it relaxed through mile 4, and then I would try to pick up the pace.
And that I did! I start to really put the pressure on once I hit mile 5... thinking "less than 8 minutes to go, give it everything you've got!" The race felt so controlled, relaxed, and steady, which is not a typical race experience for me.
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| You know we celebrated with pumpkin donuts. So yum. |
This just makes me so darn excited for the rest of my fall races. Bring it on!
The race was just the start to an all-around fabulous day. We spent the morning gallivanting around the festival and stopped at a pumpkin farm to pick out some pumpkin cuties. Can't wait to put these on our porch!
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| Talk about pumpkin overload. |
We spent the afternoon with my Business Man's fam, and even got to go see his little sister perform in a marching band competition. Brings back such great memories... straight back to that 15-year-old puppy love. (My Business Man & I met during marching band in high school - seriously, one time at band camp. :-P)
We spent the evening catching up my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins over the best pizza in central IL - Monical's. And they even felt pity for us and sent us home with all the leftovers. Not complaining here.
Seriously the best weekend ever. So happy to spend time with all the people I love.
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| Gotta celebrate a good race, right?! |
And the Pumpkin Pie blizzard wasn't too shabby either, heh.
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