I settled on the Elvis Run 5k/10k which was scheduled for Saturday, the 7th (prize for best Elvis costume!). I've wanted to run a 10k ever since I ran my first 5k in August of '10 and I seriously considered entering the Elvis Run last year. I signed up the week of the race and got in one "training" run for it...I ran a couple of fast 1 mile intervals Thursday night at the park and then ran the two mile home at around an 8 minute pace. With that, I decided I was as ready as I was going to be.
I thought about a goal time, and some kind of strategy, but was really unsure about was a realistic goal should be since this was my first 10k. There's a great tool available for free online, the McMillan Running Calculator. It has a large list of race distances. You select the distance of a recent race you've run and enter your time and it will calculate your expected time for all the other distances it lists, as well as give you your appropriate pace for various training runs (long run, tempo runs, easy runs etc.). I had entered my PR 5k time in it after the Susan G. Koman 5k in October. As I was thinking about what I should expect to run the 10k in, I remembered I had printed out the results so I dug them out to see what my expected 10k time was. It said I should be able to run a 10k in 49:22 at a 7:56/mile pace. That seemed incredibly optimistic about my abilities to me. I can run a 7:56 mile. But 6 of them? Without stopping. Seemed pretty doubtful to me.
Next I went to the online pace calculator at coolrunning.com and checked the pace for a 55 minute 10k which came to about 8:50/mile, something I knew I could definitely do, without too much effort. So I knew I could run it in 55 minutes, but doubted I could run it in 50. I formed a vague plan to run the first 3 miles or so a little under an 8:30 pace then pick it up to near an 8 minute pace over the remainder and see how I ended up. I figured that would finish me between 50 and 55 minutes, and a bit closer to the low end of that.
I got up Saturday morning, put on my running clothes, ate a piece of toast and double checked to make sure I had everything. I had originally intended to not wear a jacket because, unless it's really cold, I always get to warm with one on once I've run a mile or two and end up taking it off. The temp was in the upper 30s and there was a bit of wind...enough to make it feel even colder. I knew I'd be standing around for a bit waiting for the start and I'm a wimp with the cold so I went ahead and took the jacket. I pinned my bib to my pants since I figured I'd shed the jacket at some point during the race. With that, I got in the car and headed for downtown.
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| An Elvis-costumed runner getting ready to race. |
I arrived about 20 minutes early and found the parking was pretty packed. There were more people there than I anticipated. I got parked and headed toward the Chesapeake Boathouse where the start would be. I had to pick up my timing chip first since they didn't pass them out with the race packets. That didn't take long though and I headed to the porta-potties to take make sure I could run for the next hour without needing to stop. Finally I headed to the starting area, found a place among the runners and waited for the starting gun.
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| I got a pretty good position awaiting the race start. |
The gun sounded and the crowd surged forward. The paved path along the Oklahoma River is a bicycle/walking/running path, so it's not real wide, maybe the width of a wide car lane on the road, so at the beginning it was fairly crowded with all the runners on the narrow path. Still, I got off to a fairly quick start. I was still unsure how fast a pace I wanted to run. I started around an 8:30/mile pace, but picked that up as the runners began stringing out and the initial crowd thinned.
Since the race was along the river, the course went out and back. As I neared my first mile, I saw a sight I'll always remember. The eventual winner of the 5k had made the turn around and was coming back. He was in full Las Vegas Elvis regalia complete with a wig, running as hard as he could. It was impressive! (He finished in 16 minutes and some change.)
By the end of the first mile I had settled into a comfortable rhythm around an 8 minute/mile pace. I was now focusing on a runner or two in front of me until I'd pass them, then I'd pick someone else. At the mile and a half point the 5k runners were all turning around so there was a bit of traffic there. Once you passed that point though, it thinned out a lot because now there was no one left but 10k runners. I finished the 2nd mile in 8:01. On the third mile there were a couple of guys right in front of me. I finally overtook them and now virtually the only person I could see for a long ways was a girl in a pink tie dye running shirt 60 or 70 yards ahead of me. I focused on her and kept my pace. She was moving along at a pretty good clip so I gained on her very slowly. I was getting pretty warm by this time too, and decided I'd take my jacket off at the turnaround.
As you neared the turnaround you could get a good feel for how many runners were in front of you by the number that were coming back toward you. There weren't a lot, so I thought I must not be doing too badly. I had almost caught the pink shirt girl as we came to the turnaround and she slowed a bit at that point and I passed her. I grabbed a cup of water from a volunteer and stopped and walked for 10 seconds or so as I downed it, then took off again, made the turn and started heading back to the Start/Finish. As I ran away from the turnaround I pulled my jacket off and tied it around my waist, while mostly managing to keep my pace.
As I headed back the runners were really strung out. I passed a lot of people still running out to the turnaround. There weren't many people near me going my direction. I was beginning to watch closely for the signs marking each kilometer now, as I was beginning to feel the effects of the effort. Over those next couple of miles there were three girls in front of me that I focused on. I eventually caught and passed the first two, however the last one was going every bit as fast as I was. I followed right behind her for a half mile at least, but couldn't get past her without expending a lot more energy than I wanted to.
As I got to the 8k mark it was getting really difficult to keep my pace. My legs were getting heavy and I was beginning to feel I was running out of gas. I knew I was on pace to finish near 50 minutes though, so between that and trying to catch that girl in front of me I kept pushing. With probably a bit less than a half mile to go, the path went downhill fairly steeply as it went under a bridge that crossed the river. I sped up a bit down the hill, but then as it started back up, I slowed and the girl, who I had almost caught kept her pace and started to pull away from me. Apparently keeping that pace back uphill was a mistake though because she slowed dramatically shortly after that and I flew past her. Finally, I could see the finish ahead. I picked my pace up a bit, as I had slowed some over the last mile. Finally, with a couple of hundred yards left I managed a weak kick and made it to the finish.
My Garmin read 49:59, so I knew my official time would be right around 50 minutes. After walking around a bit and catching my breath I got a bottle of water and watched runners come in for a few minutes. They posted the results fairly quickly and I saw my official time was 50:02. I'd met my (I thought) wildly optimistic time goal of 50 minutes almost to the second! Out of 155 runners in the 10k I had finished 23rd. And in my age group of 50–54 males I finished 2nd (out of 8). That meant I'd get a medal since the top three finishers in each age group received one. That points out the advantage of entering a race with a relatively small number of runners in your age group! I didn't let that stop me from being pretty proud of my medal anyway.
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| My Elvis Run 10k medal for finishing 2nd! |
8:17
8:01
7:52
7:58
7:54
8:07
Then I managed a 7:23 pace over the last two tenths mile. Much better than I had imagined I could do, especially holding the sub-8 minute pace on miles 3 through 5. Once again, running proves to me that you can almost always do better than you think you can.
