Ashland Railroad Run 10K

So it's been a while since I posted, but fully recovered from the Monument Avenue 10K and have run a few times since. I ran a brief two miles on the treadmill on the Monday following the 10K, then with the group for 3 miles on Wednesday, then again on Saturday for another 4 miles. One week until Ashland.

This week, I again ran on the treadmill on Monday -- for my 3 mile recovery run. Wednesday was a short 2 miler with just Bob. We kept up a faster pace than normal, but knowing it was only two miles made it go by very quickly. Later on Wednesday, I picked up my race packet for Ashland along with a great tee shirt. The Monument Ave. 10K could learn from Ashland in this one aspect - not the boring white shirt you see everywhere.

Yesterday, I set a new PB with the 10K. Not much of an improvement, but chipping it off a bit at a time. This was not a chip race, so everyone was presumed to start at the same time. It was actually about 5 seconds until I crossed the start line, so my reported time of 1:05:22 was probably 5 seconds slow (presume 1:05:17). Not much of a difference, but some. Anyway, at 1:05:22, it was a 10:31 pace for the race. At the actual time, it was a 10:30 pace exactly - my goal.

Bob took off faster than the rest, and ended really strong based on where I saw him on the final turnaround. I ran mostly with Sarah and Qiana - and we ended within one second of each other (Qiana and I crossed the finish line together).

Did you learn from this?
1. Started slower -- good thing
2. Ate a bagel with PB -- good thing - had no empty stomach...
3. Watched the watch -- but only because of the fact that there weren't markings that I saw for the mileage. I was right on time for 10:30 miles at the 5 mile mark.
4. Mile 6 is the hardest -- find a way to do better here... maybe longer runs ahead of time - more than one 6 miler in the preceding weeks.
5. Running with someone helps -- I was ready to give up (walk) earlier but didn't.

Things to do different next time:
1. Don't spend the entire day beforehand spreading mulch -- my legs were definitely not at their best because of that, and my arms were stiff as anything.
2. Leave earlier -- while I knew I was on time, I was unsure of parking and how long it would take.

All in all, a PR is a PR. Just keep the numbers heading down!