My assignment to myself was to work on a more technical race. Meaning, running tangents more efficiently (IE the opposite of Boston where I resembled a ping pong ball,) focusing on leg turn over throughout, increasing it on the hills and running my OWN race.

Our running club had a strong presence which meant a very competitive field. This just solidified the point that I needed to run my own race and not get caught up in anyone else's.

I really wanted to not temp myself to start out too quickly so I didn't line up right in front. I hung back just a bit. The gun fired and off we went. I felt smooth and relaxed. 100% opposite of the way I felt at the 5K a few weeks ago. I think my legs are FINALLY coming alive after Boston.

I was really trying to focus on making good decisions, running the tangents and keeping my body smooth and relaxed. I didn't even break a sweat until about mile 3. I made a mental note of this because I had a sneaking suspicion I perhaps was going TOO conservative. It has been nearly a year since I raced a 10K and you kind of forget the different race tempos.

In the first 200 meters or so, a woman passed me quite definitively. I was impressed and let her go. Putting ego aside and staying in my own race.

Right about mile 3 I was beginning to close in on her. It's really difficult when you can see yourself making progress on someone, not to get too caught up in reeling them in and get off pace, especially with over 3 miles left to go in a race. I was trying to not even look at her and just focus on the course.

Just before the first hill, my pace carried me past her. I increased my turnover and glided up the hill, nice and easy just like I was trying to do, and then powered over the crest and let my momentum take me over the backside. She lost a lot of ground on the uphill and then bolted down the back, passing me.
I could tell the hill took a lot out of her as her breath was very labored. I went ahead and let her go and just tried to stay on my pace. We hit mile 4 and I felt extremely fresh. Too fresh, in fact. I increased my pace a little, being cautious because I knew the longer hill was coming up.

We hit the hill and again I increased my leg turnover, on a tactical note, I really didn't want to pass the woman yet as I prefer to run from behind but it happened here on the hill. I passed her and immediately put just a ton of distance between us. Hills, quite randomly, happen to be my biggest strength. I eat people alive on the hills, even when I go up conservatively. I crested the hill, powering over it, saw the mile 5 marker and charged it.

I felt WAY too fresh at this point and decided I had plenty of wiggle room to be a little reckless. This is the best I have ever felt in a race. I started reeling in people left and right. I knew the other women were out of my grasp (or at least was pretty sure) so it wasn't really a race for placing. It was just essentially seeing how fast I could run a mile at the end of a 5 mile warm up.

There was a long straight away where I ran past the 6 mile marker then we turned a hard 90 degree corner and into the chute.I kicked in another gear and full on sprinted to the finish.

I was 5th women overall, which surprised me considering the very competitive field and my mistakes.

HO-LY hell. I've never left so much in the tank!!! So, I waited for A to finish, we got some water and ran the course the opposite direction :)

Not run the first 5 miles so conservatively!

But the other stuff that I was trying to work on was excellently executed!

Water
Said Hello to some people
Ran back




Too conservative


This is one of my favorite events in Seattle. I had only ever done the 5K and loved it, but the 10K was even better.

Fan-forkin-tastic.

I would totally recommend this