Sunday, October 27, 2013

MCM 10K Race Recap

About this time last year, I was on the course of the Marine Corps Marathon, likely cursing myself for signing up for such a ridiculous distance and wishing that it was over.  This year, I ran the Marine Corps 10K and, let me just say, I felt much better at the end of this race than I did at the end of the marathon.

I last ran a 10k in 2011, so I expected to see some improvement in my running.  I'm happy to report a PR, but even happier to report that my dad totally rocked his first 10K with a time of 58:22.

The course starts on the mall, heads east toward the Capitol before looping back down 14th and across the bridge into Crystal City.  From there, it's (mostly) flat to the Iwo Jima memorial in Arlington.  The pack was tight for the first mile, which I didn't mind because it forced me to hold back and gradually settle into my race pace.  The weather and crowd support were perfect.

I'm very pleased the the result of this race.  I'd reached a point in my running, that seemed to start early last year, at which I felt like I wasn't making any progress.  I've made a few changes in my diet, workout schedule, and training plans, and I'm definitely seeing progress again.



Previous record: 58:01 Capitol Hill Classic 2011
MCM 10K net time (official) 53:37
Average pace: 8:38

Next up, the Richmond Half!

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Army Ten-Miler 2013 Race Round-Up

I last ran the Army 10-Miler back in 2011, and, because of the crowds, I wasn't entirely sure that I'd want to run it again.  (I also say this every year about the Cherry Blossom race and, yet, I seem to keep entering the lottery.)  When the fields are large for races shorter than half-marathons, I sometimes find it hard to get enough running space to settle into a pace that I like and stick with it.  Part of the battle is getting into the right starting corral, which happened this year.

I wanted to give myself plenty of time to get to the Pentagon, drop off my bag, and line up, so I left my apartment this morning at 6:30, caught the trains just right, and got to Pentagon with what I thought was plenty of time to take care of everything.  I was right on schedule until the security checkpoint set up before the corrals.  I don't know how the race organizers managed this, but there was only one entrance and maybe 20,000 runners who needed to get through.  I spent a lot of time standing in one place until they opened up a second checkpoint only moments before my wave was scheduled to start.  I made it up to the start just in time.

The pack was tight for the first few miles of the race, but things thinned just enough after the third mile. Since I'm running a race next weekend, I wanted to push myself just enough to set a PR and not injure myself.  I'm proud of myself for running a consistent race (which I'm, happily, doing much more these days).

Here are the numbers:

Previous 10-Mile Record: 1:33:10 (Army 10-Miler 2011)
Current 10-Mile PR (and course record): 1:32:18
Average pace: 9:04

Next up, I'm running with Marine Corps 10K with my dad.  Then, I'll focus on my training for the Richmond Half in November.