Hope Isn't Canceled 10k

My mom signed us all up for the Hope Isn't Canceled Virtual Face Mask Run. It was either a 5k or 10k for all the adults. You didn't have to specify when you signed up. I wasn't sure when I was going to run mine or which distance I would go for. Then the kids and I ran their fun run on August 4th since the weather cooled off for about a week. After we ran the fun run my mom did her 5k that same day and Jeremy decided to run his 10k later that evening. I figured, well heck, I might as well get my run in during these unseasonably cool days! I was planning on a 9 mile mid week longish run the following day so figured I might as well turn it into a 10k. I'd run a mile warm up, the 10k, and then a 2 mile cool down for a total of 9 miles. I really wasn't sure what pace to shoot for after the debacle that was my Run OK Virtual Half Marathon on July 3rd. I had no idea what I'd be able to do and I hadn't done any speedwork in a long time. I decided to treat the run like a tempo and just run what felt comfortably hard for the 1st half (hopefully around 7:15 pace) and then pick it up after the turn around. I haven't felt off and weird like I did around the time of the virtual half so I hoped this race would go better than that one did!

Since I was just running a mile warm up, I started the 10k portion of my run on the roads before I made it to our paved trail system. I decided so I'd have an official time, I'd restart my watch after the warm up so I'd just have my time for the 10k by itself. My first mile was 7:18 and I felt fine. I figured that was about what I'd be able to do and I was okay with that. Then my 2nd mile was 7:06 and I hadn't felt like I'd sped up at all which made me happy! I did get confused at one point because I'm so used to having my warm up included when I run tempos and I couldn't figure out how I'd only hit 2 miles on my watch before I remembered I had restarted it after the warmup. Mile 3 was 7:13 so I was right around the 7:15 pace average I had hoped for on the way out. I checked to see what my time was at 3.1 so I'd have an idea of what my finishing time might be. My first 5k was a little under 22:30. I figured I could pick it up to around 22:00 for the 2nd 5k and run a 44:30 or so. I was excited about that as I had just been hoping to be under 45!

I went through mile 4 in 6:57 and was super excited about how good I felt. Mile 5 was 6:58 and my legs were starting to feel a little bit tired but I knew I could make my last mile the fastest. I went through the last mile in 6:53 and decided to run a decent amount past 6.2 so I'd for sure have a 10k. Unfortunately that section of the trail has quite a few twists and turns which slowed down my finishing kick a bit. I ran the last portion in 6:50 pace. I decided since I was probably around 44:30 or so, I'd go ahead and run out to 6.23 to make sure I had the distance and because who cared if I picked up a few extra seconds. I was so shocked when I stopped my watch and my time was 44:02! Had I known I was that close to breaking 44, I would have sprinted a little harder or stopped at 6.22 instead. Darn! I definitely didn't expect to be that low in the 44's. I guess my math was a bit off. I was thinking 7:00 pace would be a 22:00 5k and didn't think about how much under 7:00 pace I was running!

I was really excited about my time and was super pleased it was so much faster than I expected with an average pace of 7:04 per mile! It made me feel confident that I'd be able to run a faster half-marathon right now than I did at the beginning of the month. I don't know what was going on with me then, but I'm so glad to be mostly back to normal now! I was also proud of myself for focusing on my improvement over how I felt running the Run OK Half to how I felt for this, rather than focusing on the fact that I would be running a half-marathon at the pace I ran the 2nd half of this run in if I were in good race shape right now. 7:04 pace for a 6 mile tempo off no speed work is great for me! Plus it was faster than any of the 10ks I ran in the summer race series we used to run every summer. So I'm starting in a good place to run some decent times in the fall. After Virtual Boston, of course!