Monument 10K

Fantastic day! When I signed up for this race a few months ago I thought I was going to PR, and said that it would be cool to run 33 minutes. Well I ran 32:59, so that's fantastic!

I stayed at my sister's house last night and Charlie came in this morning to warmup with me. My mom dropped us off near the starting area and we did a 23 minute warmup with Trevor. We had lots of time to stretch, but it was cold, so we probably should have warmed up a few minutes later. Despite having to sit around and wait for a few minutes, Trevor and I only got to the startling line with 3 minutes to go before it started. We were in the top corral, but had to start a few yards behind the real "elite" (including Jimmy Jam, Jared, and Kathy). My goal was to go out slower the first 5k and try to negative split, with the first mile especially slower and really roll at the end.

I resolved to go out slow so I let everyone pass me in immediately. Trevor and I ran together for about a minute or two, but then we said goodbye and I took off. The first mile was 5:33 which I thought was perfect. Looking ahead, there were probably 100 people between me and Jimmy at the first mile. So after that mile I hugged the left side of the road and went to work. Mile 2 was a 5:20 and I felt like I was moving well, but not working hard yet. People around me were breathing a lot harder than I was, and no one made any noticeable effort to stay with me as I passed them. After mile 2 I could start to see the lead women, but wanted to take my time to catch them so as to not get passed by them at the end like in Chicago. I didn't do a good job of relaxing that mile and went 5:16 for the third mile. We turned around after 3, with 5k on the way back (16:45). I was a bit worried when I saw that and thought that I'd better negative split or else it wasn't going to be pretty at the end. All or nothing.

A 5:12 4th mile pulled me up to the women. Once I got near them, I moved off of the left side of the road and actually tried to tuck in behind them for a second. I passed Kathy slowly and offered a word of encouragement, and then split the two leading women. Jared was right in front of them, so I surged a little past him too. There was no one in front of me except a lead bike for the women, and a large gap to the next runner.

I could hear my friends cheering for me on the way back. I'm pretty sure I heard Scott and Jack, my sister, Carver Weakley (sp), definitely my mom, David and Charlie. It was nice to hear that. Some jerk yelled on the way out "you suck, you're behind the women." That was dumb.

Jared came back on me in the fifth mile with a little surge, but then never really moved too far ahead of me. I thought it was possible to catch him, but then the lead woman passed me too, so I worried more about her than him. Mile 5 was a 5:18 and she passed me, but I kept fighting back to catch up to her. We had a nice little battle, but I wouldn't give up. I was very conscious of her being there, and tried to run straight without bumping her or impeding her so that I wouldn't look like a jerk approaching the finish or something. I went through the 5 mile in 26:41-- over a minute faster than the 8k I ran 3 weeks ago. Racing the lead women felt good... I kept telling myself not to give up even though I really wanted to. It was Megan Metcalfe from West Virginia... a Canadian Olympian. We went 5:16 for the last mile, and despite the cheers from the crowd as we raced to the finish line yelling "Go girl!" I did out-kick her.

I stopped my watch at 33:01 and was thrilled. Later I got a text from the race alert saying I ran 32:59. Even better. I'm just thrilled to run a real big PR. It was a big negative split too. Just perfect.