St. Paul's March Mad Dash

Yesterday, I ran the first March Mad Dash at North Park Lake, hosted by St. Paul's United Methodist church.  I signed up for this race because I worked at this church's childcare throughout college and really loved working there.  They had a 5k race, 5 mile, and 10 mile and I had signed up for the 10 mile because I thought it would be helpful to get ready for the Clarion Half-Marathon.

When the alarm went off at 6:30 on a Saturday I was definitely not pumped up about the race.  I took care of Penny and made myself a smaller breakfast than I had for the 20 mile race.  I was worried I would eat too much and you probably should eat more for a 20 miler than a 10 miler!  I had tea and a small bowl of cinnamon and brown sugar oatmeal.  I didn't have to leave until 7:30 for the 9 am race which was great.

I parked about a quarter mile or so away to avoid the crowds and packet pickup went very smoothly.  I did an easy 3 mile warm-up and felt pretty decent on it.  I was hoping that if I were to do a 3 mile warm up, do the 10 mile race, and at least a 2 mile cool down, I would be able to get 15 miles in for the day.  I am very good at math.

I was excited to see that my friends Jess, Moira, and Holly were running the race.  You know you are a running nerd when you know and have ran with the top four finishers!

I set myself a goal of going under 7 minutes/mile because any pace with a 6 in front of it seems fast for me.  My harder goal was to get close to 6:51 pace because if I run 6:51 pace for the Clarion Half-Marathon I will break 1:30.  That would be amazing and pretty hard to do because it would be a PR of about 3 minutes and 28 seconds.  Haha.

The race started and I found myself moving a long just fine.  However, after the first mile, I had a couple mile stretch where my legs felt very heavy and I found it hard to believe that I could replicate the 6:51 mile my Garmin recorded for the first mile.  I focused on not thinking about the 9 more miles I had left and on keeping my pace on my Garmin at 6:51.  It was good to practice this because during the Marathon I know I will encounter times like this.  Miles 2 and 3 were recorded as 6:49 and 6:51.

I somehow snapped out of my funk when I passed a few people and started to run uphill.  It shows how mental running is sometimes, because when someone passed me I immediately felt sluggish and then when I passed a few people I snapped out of it.  That is something I should start working on, not being discouraged when someone passes you.


The next two miles I felt better hanging on the heels of a girl who ended up running the 5 mile race.  I think we both felt relief when she pulled away from me with half a mile to the 5 mile mark and I didn't go with her.  I kept going through the finish line for lap two and I think she realized that was why I wasn't spiriting like crazy to stay with her on her fast last half mile! 

Official First Lap Split: 34:36.  My Garmin made me appear a little faster, with the first 5 miles splits at 6:51, 6:49, 6:51, 6:44, 6:48.

My goal for the second lap was to not get passed by anyone and negative split.  So while I was running strong, I was running the next part scared that someone was going to catch me and let's just say I don't always have the best sprinting kick.  I took a gel at mile 6 and convinced myself it was magic to make myself faster.  This is the advanced mind of a preschool teacher.  This lap, like the Spring Thaw, was very lonely.  A couple nice runners encouraged me when I ran by, and the volunteers (mostly kids) were great out there, ringing cowbells and shouting words of encouragement. 

My star cheerleader for the day was my Dad, who was out at the park for his usually Saturday morning bike ride.  Being on bike made him an excellent cheerleader because he saw me at least 8 times!  It was particularly helpful seeing him during the last half-mile stretch because the race was starting to get pretty hard and I really wanted to finish strong.  I did not want to give up with him watching! 

Splits for this lap: 6:43, 6:50, 6:44, 6:42, 6:37
Official Second Lap Split: 34:08

Met my goal of negative splitting by 28 seconds, so that was good.  According to my Garmin I averaged 6:45 pace, but my official time was 1:08:44 at a 6:52 pace - pretty close to the 6:51 pace I wanted!  I was happy with the way I pushed through even though the first couple miles felt pretty rough.  It's weird that I am the kind of runner who hurts more in the beginning and not the end.

Visited with my Dad and some other friends after the race, and even won a second place prize!

coffee mug and $20 to Dick's = my first winnings ever!

Had a good three mile cool-down with Moira and Jess and was able to put in 16 for the day.

St. Paul's did an awesome job with this race and you could not tell it was the first year!

The rest of the day I ran errands, grocery shopped, and went over my parent's for my birthday get-together. 
To me, it was the perfect Saturday :) .