monicalyptic: race report: mini 10k

i was really looking forward to this race. i really wanted a new PR at this distance since mine is 3 years old. i've been running well and feeling good. i was excited about racing with my teammates too! the day before the mini we had torrential rains and it was looking like we might need snorkels for the race! but race morning dawned rainless though cloudy, so we'd only have to contend with wet ground. hooray!

i arrived early this time (unlike last year's debacle where i was so late and the bathroom lines so long that i missed the start completely and had to race from the back, which did not make for a good experience) and met the group near bag claim. laura had made purple VCTC hair ribbons for us and we were all excited. several of our male teammates had come to cheer for us and laura had outfitted them with purple wigs, boas, tutus, mustaches and pompoms. it was awesome. we took a few pics and then everyone headed for the bathrooms or corrals.

i saw a few teammates in my corral and waved and smiled, we all wished each other good races. soon enough, we were off. the crowding was not too bad and i didn't have to do a lot of weaving which was great. i knew i had to keep about an 8 minute pace to reach my goal time, and the first couple of miles ticked off very well. somewhere after mile 2, my shoelace came untied. UGH. i pulled over and retied it very tightly, feeling rather pissed about the delay/time loss and determined not to let that take away my PR. when we got the 5k split, the course clock read 24:33 -- not too far off my 5k PR and i knew this put me in good shape. but we were just starting to climb the worst of the central park hills so i knew it was not in the bag. right about now, the sun came out and things got steamy. i was starting to feel gassed and wasn't sure a PR was in the cards for me after all. i hadn't taken any water on the course so far and had been feeling fine, but was now getting thirsty but didn't want to risk the time loss.

i skipped the mile 4 water stop and told myself i could hit up the next/last one at mile 5 instead. but as i rounded the turn into mile 5 and saw the water tables, i also saw our cheering squad, right at the bottom of a decent hill which was looking fairly insurmountable at this point in the race. i thought, damn if i'm going to stop for water right in front of my team, so i just kept going. the guys were fantastic cheerleaders and really gave me the push i needed to get up that hill.

when my garmin chirped the 5 mile mark and i looked down to see i had run it in 7:55, i knew my PR was still possible with the worst of the hills behind me. so i locked in and just kept going. i knew if i could hold my pace i would PR and maybe even break the 50-minute mark, a secret goal i had set for myself not necessarily to accomplish this race or even this year, but as a medium-term thing.

with a few smallish rolling hills left on the course, and of course the uphill finish, i didn't push myself to speed up yet but just to maintain. soon enough, the 800 meter sign was there, and i told myself it's just two laps of the track, you can do it. at 400 meters, it was one lap of track left and i pushed myself with whatever i had left. once the finish clock came into sight, it was not quite at 50 minutes, and knowing i had a few (maybe 10-20) seconds of wiggle room since i hadn't crossed the start right at zero, i was super optimistic that i would slide in under 50. made it across the line with an unofficial time (by my watch) of 49:53. so excited! and so thirsty!

met up with teammates after the race and compared notes. we all thought the sun coming out was a huge bummer, but several of us had PR'd anyway and we were all quite upbeat and excited. we took plenty of silly pictures and waited for the raffle, in which 2 of my teammates won prizes. then we all eventually split off for brunch or home.