Get comfy…this is a long one.

This 4^th of July weekend I ran the Freedom Run here in Reno. The race featured both a 5k and a 10k option, I chose the latter. Me running this race was no accident, it took a lot of strategic planning to pick this race. I am running the 2^nd half of the San Francisco Marathon on the 31^st of this month, and I wanted do to a tune up race. I’ve never done a tune up race before, but I was reading all about it online and it sounded like a good idea since my past few race results have been less than stellar and I wanted to know where I was at as far as running shape. I chose this race because it was almost 4 weeks out from my goal race and I read that a 10k is the perfect tune up race distance for a half. Plus the race started at 7:00am, I could beat the heat.

At packet pick up they asked if I wanted to purchase some raffle tickets. I took a look at the prizes and there were some pretty incredible ones. Hotel stays, massages, full vacations, etc. I told them I never win anything, but since it was for a good cause, I bought 5 of them for $20. More on the raffle tickets later.

I had this perfect plan to execute this race day exactly how I had planned to execute my half marathon race day later this month. The race started at 7:00am so I woke up at 4:45am to start the eating and digestion process. I planned to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but I realized that my husband bought “Oat Fiber Bread”.  I learned the hard way that me, fiber and racing do not get along. So, I ate Spaghetti O’s instead (so far not to plan). I always take some sort caffeine 45-30 minutes prior to a race, so I followed that protocol as well. I got to the race about 20 minutes before it was to start. When I arrived, volunteers were still setting up tables (this should have been my first clue). I started with a brisk 5 minute walk and transitioned into a 5 minute jog. I then completed by entire dynamic warm-up routine. My legs had an extra spring in them and I knew this was going to be a great race day.

 I found one of my running buddies and we started to chat. He mentioned that it was a small turn out at the race, I looked around and got excited. There were maybe 20 people standing around (this should have been my second clue), Maybe I could come in top 3 females. After a few minutes, I looked at my watch and it was 6:58am. I knew 3 others running this race and none of them were here yet (and this should have been clue number 3). I thought maybe something happened and they weren’t going to be racing, but I thought it odd that all 3 of them wouldn’t show up. Plus it was 2 minutes until the start and no one was gathering us up, in fact they were still hooking up the sound system. At about 7:05am, I really started wondering when we were going to start. At 7am, it was already 72 degrees out and I wanted to get going before it got too hot. I knew this was a small local race, but come on. At 7:15am, my running buddy approached the race director and asked him when we would be starting, his reply, 8am (as my sister says, I got chumped)! I was completely flabbergasted (I love that word). I threw a mini (and private temper tantrum) and huffed all the way to my phone to check the email they sent out in regards to the race, because I knew for a fact it started at 7am (read with absolute haughtiness). I pulled up the email and read “you can pick up your packet at the race starting at 7:00am”…wait…what…”pick up your packet” at 7:00am??? Wow, was I really that dense. All I saw originally was “race starting at 7:00am”. I couldn’t believe I was so off, but at least I wasn’t the only one, me and the other 20 folks all thought it started at 7.

For the next 35ish minutes I stood around and spoke to the other apparently clueless racers. More and more people started showing up, including my 3 other friends. I once again went through my dynamic warm up and warmup jog. However, because of the standing in one spot for the last hour, my legs were no longer springy. It fact they felt like lead. The temperature had risen to 80 degrees and I didn’t bring any extra caffeine with me. So, there went my perfect execution.

The race started at about 8:02am. This course was pretty much out and back, starting at a park, with the first half of the course being slightly uphill (about 125ft gain). I slogged my way through the first 3 miles, my legs never loosening up and my breath out of control. I tried not to look at my watch too much as I’d rather race by feel. When we got to the turnaround point I looked at my watch and saw we had hit 2.75 miles. Now, I’m no mathematician, but I don’t think 2.75 plus 2.75 equals 6.2. I got a little worried and then a little happy that I wouldn’t have to suffer through an entire 10k. --Side note, on the way back a lovely volunteer thought it would be a great idea to walk the course smoking a cigarette. Just what I wanted smoke to fill my gasping lungs. I arrived back at the park, feeling miserable, heavy and hot, I kept looking for the point at which we would enter the park. Finally, I saw the point, I assumed we would be going back the same way we went out, but I was wrong. We circle the park for about a mile. This means I spent the next mile staring at the finish line having no idea when we would be turning to make that final dash to the finish. I am mentally week. So in all honesty, I gave up mentally, I was ready to be done. I slowed my pace and just wanted to get it done with. Finally, there was the finish line and I was allowed to run through it. Normally, I give it my all and leave nothing out on the course, not this time. I maintained my pace and crossed.

This race definitely did not go to plan. It did not give me the confidence to run a great half in less than a month. My finish time was 51:16, I was really hoping for a 50:xx, and I wouldn’t have felt super bad about the 51:16, if it had been a true 10k, but it turned out to be 5.95 miles. Had it been a true 10k, my actual time would have been 53:xx. Not good.

I truly believe if the race would have started at 7:00am, it would have been a better race for me. But standing completely still for an hour, did not help my legs any. Next time I’ll pay better attention to those emails

Remember those raffle tickets I mentioned earlier, I didn’t win anything, but I do remember them saying you had to be present to win. I stayed around the race talking to my friends and I noticed the volunteers packing everything up and I say a prize that hadn’t been claimed. I walked up and asked one of the volunteers that since no one had claimed it and I had raffle tickets could they pull tickets until the got to mine. The volunteer shrugged and handed me the prize. SCORE!!! It was a $20 gift card to Reno eNVy (a local clothing store). When I got home, I looked in the bag only to discover it was completely empty save a bit of confetti. Hm, not so “score” after all. Chumped again!

Official race stats:

Overall Time: 51:16

Pace: 8:16

Gender Place: 8/25

Overall Place: 27/54

After today's 10k race, I realized a hard truth, I am seriously lacking stamina. I am able to keep a 7:57/mi pace for a 5k, but I seriously struggle to keep a 8:40/mi pace in a 10k. I know my 5k and 10k pace wont be the same, but that's almost a minute per mile slower. According to the McMillan Running Calculator (which is my running pace end all, be all) with my 5k time, I should be running a 51:26 (8:17/mi) 10k. Instead, I ran a 53:49 10k today. Which is a new PR for me, but nowhere near what I could be running. On my quest to be an ever improving runner, naturally, the first thing I did upon arriving home from the race was research on how I could increase my stamina. What I found was a little upsetting.

I found that the two words, endurance and stamina, were used interchangeably. I want to help set the record straight. Endurance and stamina are not the same thing. Endurance is basically how long you can go (ie: a 50k runner probably has great endurance to cover that distance). Stamina on the other hand, is the ability to run a certain distance at a chosen sustained effort (ie: an Olympic 5k runner probably has great stamina to run 3 sub 4min miles, but probably doesn't have the endurance of the 50k runner) For a runner like me, I think I have fairly good endurance, but I lack stamina. I was not able to find anything on how I can improve my stamina (I found a lot on how to increase endurance), but I did find that the pace you train at is the pace your body becomes most economic at. In essence, if you train easy all the time, you will not be able to maintain a hard pace during a race. So, I think I need to start doing more race paced runs, and incorporating progression runs for my long runs. Right now I only have 2 speeds. Easy and hard. No middle ground. Over the next few months, I want my focus to be on improving stamina, while maintaining my endurance.

So, as I mentioned earlier, I ran the 14th Annual Pinocchio's Moms on the Run. It is a 3k/5k walk or a 5k/10k run. I opted for the 10k run because I have only ran one 10k previously and I wanted to see how I would do after half marathon training. My work sponsored a team, so it was even better because that meant a free race!

I arrived at the race early because I was chosen as team captain so I had all the the bibs and shirts for my co-workers. Only 2 out of 8 coworkers actually showed up at 8:15am like we had planned. The other ones came up to me about 3 minutes before the start of the race (8:57am) asking for their stuff. Luckily they were walking and could wait until the end to get their shirts, etc.

When the race started, my plan was to average 8:20 pace the entire time. I wanted a nice evenly split race. Probably not the best plan because the first half of the race is uphill. I did manage to run a negative splits (minus the first mile). There were about 3,000 walkers and runners all staring at the same time, so needless to say it was very crowded that first mile. I was staring at my watch for most of the first mile, trying to tell my self to slow down and not get ahead of myself.

After the first mile, things were not that great for me. I was struggling to keep a sub 9min pace. It started getting really hot, and everyone seemed to be able to run a lot faster than me. There was some mini hills that just seemed to suck the energy right out of me. When I saw the 5k turnaround sign, I kept wishing I signed up for the 5k instead. But, I didn't and I had to keep on keeping. The course was basically an out and back, except for one section in the final 2 miles we ran around a neighborhood block (which was uphill, ugh). For the final mile I just decided to leave it all on the course and really give it a go. Unfortunately my go wasn't enough to rescue my race time.

Overall, I am a little disappointed in how quickly I felt tired, but still happy for a PR!

Time: 53:49
Splits: 8:30 / 8:55 / 8:53 / 8:46 / 8:44 / 8:19 / 7:26 (final .2)

Do you have any thoughts on increasing stamina?

I love automatic PRs!!! This Thanksgiving I completed my first 10k. I have been looking forward to this race for sometime as it is another runners rite-of-passage here in Reno. It has only been going on for about 15 years, but it is probably one of the most popular races in the Reno-Sparks area. there were 1200 people alone running the 10k. There were hundreds more running the 2 mile. I am actually surprised that a race on a holiday is so popular.

Anyway, like most races I was worried about how I would run. I was fughting a cold and I had some crazy bumps on the bottom of my foot that felt like rocks in my shoe whenever I put pressure on it. In addition to that, I always put a lot of pressure on myself, even though I know I shouldn't. Even though this was my first 10k, I already had a time I would like to come in at in my head. My goal was 55:00 minutes. That would put me in just under 9:00/mi which according to the writers over at Livestrong:

 "completing a mile in nine minutes or less is running" 

and I'd like to consider myself a runner, so running was what I was going to do. I arrived at the race about 45 minutes prior to the start. I was excited that my hubby came with me to cheer me on (and also get some race pics of me).

Pre-race pic

It was super chilly (32 degrees). I was a little bummed to find out that they were not doing a chip start time, only a chip finish. Which means when the clock starts, it starts for everyone no matter when you cross that start line. I didn't want to line up in the front because I knew I would end up in some insanely fast persons path and probably be trampled annoy the crap out of them. So I lined up in the middle near the frontish. One of the girls I run with on my Tuesday and Saturday run group, Amy, was running the race (this was also her 1st 10k) and said her goal was to keep up with me. (I'm not sure where she got it in her head that I was even remotely worthy of a goal of hers). She lined up with me before the start and we took off together. There was only about a 10 second delay from when the gun went off to when I actually started running. It was a good and wide course, so I didn't feel like I was trapped behind a lot of people. I got out the crowd pretty quickly. About a mile into the race, she slowly started to get faster and before I knew it she was ahead of me. I really wanted to speed up too, but I was trying to stay modest and not burnout later.

What seemed like an hour later, we passed the 2 mile mark. I felt like I was going to loose it there. That was the longest 2 miles of my life. I was already exhausted feeling, and somehow really cold and hot at the same time. I actually thought about giving up right then and there. I knew I'd regret it later if I quit, so I kept on keepin. After mile 3, things feel into place. I actually forgot I was running and allowed my mind to wander. I was feeling relaxed and good. The race did a few out and back turns so I was basically able to see everyone in the race. It was nice to see a lot of familiar faces along the way. Before I knew it, I was at mile 5, my watch said I was at 4.82. I picked up the pace a little bit and was able to hold on until mile 6 again 5.82 according to my watch. Here I was at mile 6 thinking I only had .2 miles to go. So I gunned it as fast as my legs could carry me. I was flying by other runners.

Thinking I'm almost done.

After a time, I realized I still did not see the finish line. I looked down at my watch and I was at 6 miles. Now according to their mile markers I should be finishing. But nope, the course was actually a little over a 10k (6.28mi to be exact) and they were just horrible at placing the markers. I still had .28 miles to go, and I was out of gas. So...as you can probably guess, everyone I passed during my preemptive sprint to the finish, passed my up while they were sprinting to the true finish.

No biggie though, I still finished. Not with as much finesse as I hopped, but I finished nonetheless. And the best part is, I hit my goal! I finished in 54:38. Amy (you know the one whose goal it was to stay with me) finished in 53:34. All in all, I thought it was a good race. I think I could have gone slightly faster throughout the entire race, but I think it went well my for first. I even got to take some post race pictures with a giant turkey!

Amy and I with the Trotting Turkey!

Splits: 8:39 / 8:48 / 8:55 / 9:01 / 8:58 / 8:35 / 9:01 (the final .28)

Overall time: 54:38 

357/1223