Race Recap: Ontario 10k

Saturday I completed my first ever 10k! I ended up taking three rest days before hand because the smoke from the wildfire made running conditions less than ideal. In all, I think that was a good decision.

As you all know by now, I was a little nervous about running the 10k. In training I never actually made it to the six mile mark. I knew I would make it to the end without issue, but a good time was not really a possibility in my mind anymore.

Saturday morning, I was still sort of at a loss for what my strategy was going to be. I was fairly confident that I wasn't going to run the whole way simply because I hadn't done so in training.

Well I'm happy to report that I ran the entire 6.2 miles (well, actually 6.4) in 1:01:02. Which is only one minute slower than my original 10k goal time. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

This track was wonderfully flat and fast if not just a tad bit boring. The first mile and a half was around the concourse of the large outlet mall. It was fairly crowded to start, but we spaced fairly well within the first half mile.

Mile 1: 9:34 min/mile
Mile 2: 9:27 min/mile

There was a gentleman in front of me who was running at my pace, so I decreed him my running buddy and paced him pretty hard. I tried to stay far enough back so as not to bother him, but definitely wanted him near me because it was helping me to stay on track. There ended up being a group of about six of us that stayed near each other the entire time, which made me feel a camaraderie I hadn't felt in prior races. 


My 5k time came in around 28:30, which is near my PR, and I was still feeling awesome. I knew at this point that I would be able to run through at least mile four, which became my new goal. Miles three and four were away from the mall in the industrial area nearby. Running into the rising sun was not my favorite, but I do think it sped me up a bit.

Mile 3: 9:14 min/mile
Mile 4: 9:28 min/mile

We hit mile five right as we came back into the mall concourse. I was feeling a little bit of soreness in my hamstring at this point, but my mood was great. Having my running buddy keeping an awesome 9:30 pace really helped my motivation. At this point I knew I could finish strong. 

Mile 5: 9:28 min/mile
Mile 6: 9:26 min/mile

The last two miles were around the concourse. I wanted so badly to sprint at the end, but my body had had it. I had been tracking the mileage with Map My Run, and the mile markers on the course were consistently about 0.1 miles after the mile my GPS recorded. So that extra quarter mile I wasn't expecting at the end had me suffering.

All in all, I finished with a time I'm really proud of. And I felt so good doing it. The next 10k is less than eight weeks away, so we are back on training this week!