After months of searching for my first 10k road race I finally signed up for the Westford 10k Road Race. (See Dave's earlier blog post here) On May 6th I completed the race. It was my first time running a 10k. After only running 5k road races for years I decided to set a goal of completing a half marathon this fall. As this is quite a jump in distance from a 5k I was determined to complete a 10k this spring to build my confidence. If you are familiar with Westford, Massachusetts you may be surprised that I chose to complete my first 10k in this town. Most of Westford is very hilly. After viewing the race several times I realized the course was not as challenging as I had originally thought. I saw that there was a major hill the last mile of the race but at the beginning there was a huge downhill. The middle section of the course featured rolling hills but no major climbs.

I started out a little conservative since this race was my first 10k. I was still a little nervous about completing the event in good shape. The big downhill at the beginning really helps you conserve your energy at the beginning of the race. If I ran the race again I probably would run faster on the downhill but holding back made the first mile very easy. I continued my conservative but steady pace until mile 3 and noticed that I was passing a lot of runners that were breathing heavy while I was not. I decided at that point to pick up the pace. The next few miles were rolling, but I managed to get through that section OK. The hill at the end on Main Street is tough but it is at the end and you know if you just push hard you will soon be at the finish line. I crossed the finish line at 55:33 which was better than I expected. I left the race happy to finish my first 10k but also knowing I could have run faster the first 3 miles. I will continue to run the Good Times 5k race series each week and probably look to run another 10k before I run my half marathon in the fall.

Last night I ran in the Good Times 5k in Lowell, Massachusetts. This was the 4th race in the 10 week series that is held every Tuesday night at 7 PM in Lowell. So far I have completed every race and my intention is to complete all of the races in the series. If you take a look at my race history you will see that I have done this race quite a few times. As a matter of fact I actually checked my race history and last night was the 44th time I have completed this event.

Why do I love this event? One reason is that I hate to do track workouts. I have difficulty getting motivated to complete a hard track workout. I always thought if I am going to put out that much effort then I should be racing. To me nothing replaces the intensity both mentally and physically as competing in a road race. I have been using 5k road races as my "track workout" for years and I believe this has been a big component to my consistent performances. I really believe to do well in a 5k road race you have to be comfortable with the pain you feel during the race and have the ability to sustain that effort for all 3.1 miles. After you complete 3-4 races in the series you start to feel comfortable with the required effort and your fitness starts to improve. This is especially true if you put out a 100% effort each week regardless of your fatigue level.

Now to last night. Weather was cool and wet but the rain held off for the race. In other words the weather was perfect for running and not so perfect for socializing at Hookside Kellys afterwards. I have been starting way to fast the last few weeks so I decided to start at a more conservative pace. When you run a weekly series like this one many times you end up running near the same people each week. This week I ended up right behind a woman that I have seen each week at some point on the course. I was running a solid pace and kept pace directly behind her for over a mile. I would give you my pace but I don't typically wear a watch for 5k road races. I run as hard as I can so to me a watch is irrelevant for such a short event. Anyway if you are familiar with this race as you turn right after you cross the University Ave bridge you have a choice to run on the right side of the guard rail on the sidewalk or run in the breakdown lane of the divided highway. The woman I was running behind went for the sidewalk so I followed close behind. Things were going well until we caught up to another runner. Some areas to the right of the guardrail are a little tight and passing is difficult. I am estimating that our pace dipped about 10 seconds a mile for quite a stretch on the highway until there was room to pass. Once the road opened up I ended up passing both runners in front of me and ran strong to the finish. In hindsight the reduction in pace on the highway although frustrating may have actually given me a little "break" that enabled me to finish strong. The bottom line is that I finished in 19:13 (6:12pace) which is my best time of 2012.

Of course my brother and sister-in-law both ran a PR for the 3rd time (photo above) and picked up yet another PR medal. As usual we hydrated after the race at Hookside Kellys. Good night and a Good Time.