Expectations get you every time. I used to expect to do under forty minutes for a 10K, and the only question was how much under forty could I go? Not having done too many 10K's in recent years, I wasn't real sure, but based on recent training, as well as fairly recent 5K, 10-mile and marathon races, I thought 43 or so minutes - about seven minutes a mile - was doable.
Not only was it not doable, it wasn't even close. The Towpath Ten-Ten is a 10K and 10-mile race on the paved part of the towpath in Valley View and Cleveland. It's flat, and with the solid surface, ought to be fast. I chose the 10K because I wanted to go especially fast this day. The first mile actually did go okay, time-wise. It was right around seven minutes.
But I was already suffering. The rain had tapered off, but it was now extremely humid. I'd run in humid conditions before, but that thick air was affecting my breathing more than usual this day. And then there were my GI issues, about which I won't elaborate.
I slowed to eight minute pace and that was that. Even holding on to that was a chore. I finished in a little under 49 minutes. I think that's a PW, but I'm too lazy to check. In case you're bad at math, that's six minutes slower - a minute a mile - than I expected, and 10 minutes slower than where I'd like to be.
It appears that those expectations need further adjustment.
No comments:
Post a Comment