Founder's Day 10K Race Report

Founder's Day 10K
November 12th, 7:30 am
55 degrees F, High humidity, light wind
Participation: 897 runners (finishers)
Goal: Beat old PR of 1:06

Today I was going to run my race. I was not going to allow myself to start out too fast and I was going to take my scheduled walking breaks....and I succeeded! I also got a new PR for my second 10K.

For race morning prep, I ate "Sharkies", gummy shark things, about an hour before the race while I drove there. I don't normally eat before I run or before a race that is early - usually I do a gel pak. I ate the sharkies because I wanted to get some energy stuff into me (and, though I tried, I couldn't eat them on the run...they stick to my teeth!).

It was a cool but humid morning - probably about 55-60 deg and cloudy. The humidity made it feel cooler, but it was a great temperature for racing - and I was ready in my tank top. Since there was a bag check, I could wear a light jacket until just before starting.

(For those of you who are not of Floridian blood, this is actually a cool morning. Many showed up at the race in long sleeves - later regretting it.)

This time, I lined up further back in the pack and set up a 175 bpm Podrunner song to keep me paced during the race. My times were:

Mile 1: 9:46 (a little fast, but it felt comfortable)
Mile 2: 10:37 (a little slower than I wanted but ok since there was a water stop right before mile 2)
Mile 3: 10:01 (more of the pace I was looking for)
Mile 4: 10:29
Mile 5: 10:52 (water stop in this mile, and I was feeling a little tired but still ok)
Mile 6: 10:29 (I ran this last bit of the race for my daughter Carolyn who couldn't be there)
Mile 6.2: 1:44

Net time: 1:04:00 (Beat my previous time by over 2 and a half minutes!)

The race took us through the town of Celebration, Florida, not too far from Disney World. It was built to look like the old towns in the North east (verses the stucco style houses of Florida). It was a nice run through town where folks sat out on their front porch to watch the race go by.

Heel report: A little achey but not more than normally after a run. I was supposed to do a 14 mile long run, and was going to run another 8 miles after getting home, but I am going to pass on the extra miles and try to run them in the morning instead. This is an easy week leading up to my 22 miler next Sunday. I am going to treat that run like a marathon and prep for it as I would the marathon. It will be a good dry run.

7 weeks and 6 days to Disney!!