With temperatures right around 80 degrees and no cloud cover, today was very warm for a six mile race. Still it was warm for everyone, even Bernard Manirakiza who set a course record with his 31:31 performance. Personally I prefer it cooler, but we don’t always get to pick our weather.

The day started by getting up around 5:00AM and leaving Temple, where we’d overnighted with some friends, to begin the 100+ mile drive to Dublin. This sounds pretty severe for a Saturday morning, but it was a lot nicer than getting up at 3:30 to catch the RunTex bus from Austin. I’m not complaining. We get into town about 35 minutes before the race was supposed to start, giving me enough time to grab my race packet, find the porta-potties, run about a half mile warmup, and do some drills and a few light stretches.

As we lined up at the start, they asked for anyone planning on a sub 36 to come up to the front. They got, well, one person, while the rest of us laughed nervously. We filled in appropriately for the most part, and I found myself behind a gaggle of brightly-colored high school students getting some final pointers from their coach. Behind me was a large group of soldiers from the first Cavalry, dressed in their standard grey workout attire.

After taking a leisurely 6.6 seconds to cross the starting line, and weaving around the inevitable slow person or two, my primary goal was to find a reasonable pace. My heart rate was pretty high right from the start, and the first mile went by in a comfortable 7:38 at an uncomfortable 170 bpm. After that point I was supposed to pick it up, but … didn’t. More on that in a minute.

During the first mile and a half, I could hear the army guys behind me calling cadence. Very disconcerting. I was determined not to let them catch up to me, and even more determined not to fade at the end and have them pass me en masse. It turns out that they weren’t able to keep it up for more than about ten minutes, and ended up finishing all over the board, but it was a surprisingly real concern for me. So much for running my own race, huh?

Anyway, back to the middle of the race. The citizens of Dublin were very kind, and many of them had set out sprinklers or were standing out with their garden hoses offering us water sprays as we ran by. Even with all that, it was damned hot. The first mile felt moderately hard, and then I found a good rhythm and fell into a very comfortable push.

By the time I got to about the second mile marker, there was pretty much no crowd. I had fallen in beside another runner and we talked a little about goals and plans - I realize in retrospect that the fact that we were able to chat like that was not a good sign for my pace. It wasn’t completely comfortable, but it was a lot less of an effort than it should have been. I left him behind at mile three and picked up the pace somewhat, but still felt pretty good.

10K Lesson Learned - at the halfway point, you should not be feeling pretty good.

The other strange thing was the lack of competition. After leaving my conversational companion behind, I passed a few people who were fading but was never in any danger of being passed myself. More than that, I was just out there running by myself for the bulk of the race, something I’ve never before experienced. When I crossed the line there was an almost 30 second gap ahead of me and behind me - and I know that I could have pushed quite a bit harder with someone to shoot for.

My heart rate had ranged from the high 170s to the low 180s for the bulk of the run. I could feel the heat, and I knew that it was having an affect on me, and that probably made me a little cautious. Possibly a touch overcautious. My pace felt like I was pushing it but, well, I only averaged a 7:51 for the race. At the six mile mark I put on a pretty decent finishing kick, really picking it up for the last 200 meters or so and flying across the finish line… not wonderful.

Let me explain that last comment briefly. I started to realize that I should have started my kick about a half mile back from the end. Then it slowly dawned on me that I had been feeling pretty darn good by the end of the race. Even in the heat, I had paced myself to be able to have done at least another 3.8 miles and made it a 10 miler. That’s not the way to do well in a 10K.

The bottom line is that my 48:43 was still a PR by over a minute. I shouldn’t complain. I will feel bad. I really need to work on race strategy, which at this point is limiting me in these shorter races much more than my condition. I will learn. I will grow. I will get faster.

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