Race Report: 10 K

In honor of Thomas Green Clemson's 200th birthday, the Sons and Daughters of Dear Old Clemson Road Race ran from Clemson University to the green in Pendleton. Fun to run from one town to another, but with a long hill from 4 to 5 miles. This was the first time I had run a stand-alone 10 K.

I ate oatmeal (with heavy cream and strawberries) about an hour and a half before the race and a Lara bar maybe 15 minutes before the start. The main excitement waiting around for the start was that busses kept snagging the starting line banner; finally the rope broke. I was frustrate to turn on my Garmin Forerunner 305 and have it say low battery--since I last charged it I used it only for an hour's run Wednesday. Now I know to be more cautious about fully charging it before a race.

There were fewer than 100 people running, a lot of them students. But then I met some people, I think employees of the campus police station, who clearly weren't serious runners, so I had hopes it wouldn't be so lonely a race. I also taked to the folks from Terry Times who were doing the timing and they assured me they would keep the finish line up for all the finishers and post all the times.

The course started out downhill and then was pretty steadily uphill for a mile or so. My GPS only lasted half a mile, so I focused on running by effort, and particularly keeping my effort up when going downhill. A man in front of me was doing walk run intervals--he would walk until I had nearly caught up and then run much faster than me. I had the feeling he was pacing himself by not letting me catch up. But there were two women ahead of us who weren't pulling farther and farther ahead. The first water stop had run out of cups, but they still had water so I cupped my hand under the spigot and drank from that. The two women ahead were doing walk run intervals even on the long downhill, so I figured that was my chance to catch up with them. I actually passed the man first, when he stopped with stomach problems. I passed the two women on the long uphill after 4 miles, even though I walked the steeper parts of it.

The last mile was downhill and then gently up. I saw a couple more people ahead, but I didn't succeed in gaining much on them. The last .2 miles was uphill and hard. I finished a few seconds over 1:17. My PR for the distance is 1:15, and that in a triathlon, but I was still pretty pleased. It was nice to have passed three people, and my pace of 12:23 was almost a minute per mile faster than the 10 mile race two weeks ago (13:19).

I thought I might win my age group, as my fast friend wasn't there and there weren't many runners over 30. I got beat just by a couple of minutes in my age group, though the winner of women 60-69 was more than five minutes faster. I did win a prize at the drawing--a $35 gift certificate at a flower shop. I couldn't think of anything to save it for so I stopped on the way home and used it to buy yellow lilies, purple flowers whose name I don't know, and white snapdragons. It makes a handsome bouquet on our kitchen table.