UGH- photo fail once again! I promised myself I'd take a photo at the next race and 100% failed on that front. But, in my defense, it was rainy, cold, wet, gross and everything you hope a 10 miler NOT to be on Sunday. Alas, we still got to the start and were pumped for it. I ended up starting the race with my former boss (who won her age division!) and Christopher. The GW Parkway Classic is definitely a race I will have on my radar to participate in next year again. Regardless of the gross weather conditions, it was only a few thousand people (not bad for DC area) and was a point to point race on the highway (closed down obviously) from Mt. Vernon (yay George Washington!) to Old Town Alexandria, VA.
The race had just a few rolling hills and mostly was right next to the Potomac with beautiful views. Next time I'll try to pay more attention to the scenery. There was also one guy who had run the race every year since 1988 and I passed him on the course which was cool (people kept congratulating him), so good to see people of all ages kicking butt. As for the race, it was a PR for me since I beat my Cherry Blossom time, but I felt like it could have and should have been better.
First of all, I was wearing a huge windbreaker. I guess this was kind of necessary since it was 40s and raining and overall gross, but in the future owning a sport vest would be much better suited for such an event. Whatever, gotta work with what you have. Secondly, I started the race out WAY TOO FAST. WAY TOO FAST. The race started on a downhill and my first mile was sub-8 minutes which is NOT SUSTAINABLE FOR 10 miles. So basically by miles 9-10 I was doing around 8:45-9:05 min/miles because I used up too much energy at the get go. That is really something I would like to work on for future races-- pacing myself. Slow and steady wins the race-- you have to know your body and how fast you can endure for all the miles. I knew sub-8 minute for the first mile was stupid, but I guess the adrenaline of the race or something made me not make the rational decision of slowing down.
So what's in store for this week?
Well, I'd love to start increasing my mileage. Not really for any specific race or reason, but just because I think it will create a larger/stronger base for future races in general. I'm also planning on doing a Friday Night 5K with one of my friends. I haven't done a 5K in forever and am actually super excited about it. The fastest 5K I ever ran was in high school cross country at 21:55 for 3.1 miles. Woah. That will not be happening on Friday, but I would love to crush that time at some point this year. Running is so weird-- I feel like there are ups and downs and then something just clicks. I'm still in awe how I went from only being able to run for 20 minutes in January 2011 at a 12 min/mile pace to doing a half marathon and two 10 milers over the course of March-April 2012 in the range of 8:41-9:07min/mile. I guess I'll just keep trekking along and see how far I can push myself. It's also a pretty cool change to go from absolutely HATING running to absolutely LOVING it. Not sure how I managed that one, but it's awesome.
The race had just a few rolling hills and mostly was right next to the Potomac with beautiful views. Next time I'll try to pay more attention to the scenery. There was also one guy who had run the race every year since 1988 and I passed him on the course which was cool (people kept congratulating him), so good to see people of all ages kicking butt. As for the race, it was a PR for me since I beat my Cherry Blossom time, but I felt like it could have and should have been better.
First of all, I was wearing a huge windbreaker. I guess this was kind of necessary since it was 40s and raining and overall gross, but in the future owning a sport vest would be much better suited for such an event. Whatever, gotta work with what you have. Secondly, I started the race out WAY TOO FAST. WAY TOO FAST. The race started on a downhill and my first mile was sub-8 minutes which is NOT SUSTAINABLE FOR 10 miles. So basically by miles 9-10 I was doing around 8:45-9:05 min/miles because I used up too much energy at the get go. That is really something I would like to work on for future races-- pacing myself. Slow and steady wins the race-- you have to know your body and how fast you can endure for all the miles. I knew sub-8 minute for the first mile was stupid, but I guess the adrenaline of the race or something made me not make the rational decision of slowing down.
So what's in store for this week?
Well, I'd love to start increasing my mileage. Not really for any specific race or reason, but just because I think it will create a larger/stronger base for future races in general. I'm also planning on doing a Friday Night 5K with one of my friends. I haven't done a 5K in forever and am actually super excited about it. The fastest 5K I ever ran was in high school cross country at 21:55 for 3.1 miles. Woah. That will not be happening on Friday, but I would love to crush that time at some point this year. Running is so weird-- I feel like there are ups and downs and then something just clicks. I'm still in awe how I went from only being able to run for 20 minutes in January 2011 at a 12 min/mile pace to doing a half marathon and two 10 milers over the course of March-April 2012 in the range of 8:41-9:07min/mile. I guess I'll just keep trekking along and see how far I can push myself. It's also a pretty cool change to go from absolutely HATING running to absolutely LOVING it. Not sure how I managed that one, but it's awesome.
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