Eerie Erie 10K Race Report

First off, let me just say how much FUN I had yesterday at the Eerie Erie 10K!  Six of us from our running group met at Kathy’s house to don large, brightly-colored wigs, then carpooled to the Erie Middle School.  Elizabeth gave me a slinky black evening gown to wear over my tech shirt and shorts.  The slit in the side was a bonus so my legs could move, but I also tucked it up into my waistband another couple inches so there was no chance of tripping and falling flat on my face.

The race didn’t start until 9:30.  The late start time felt absolutely decadent, given that I’ve usually run 6-10 miles, had coffee for an hour and showered by 9:30.  We took our time driving to the race, getting our bibs and shirts, collecting our $2 refund for coming in costume, and then visited the bathrooms one more time.

After two days of a heavy, wet snowstorm, much of the snow was melted by Saturday morning.  The roads were completely clear and the dirt roads were only soft, not muddy at all.  A few minutes before the race started the six of us moseyed over to the starting line and positioned ourselves mid-pack.  I wanted to get a little closer to the front but my girls were pretty pleased with their positioning, so I let go of the competitiveness that was starting to simmer and joined them.  A nice racer man took our picture before the start.  Lots of people noticed us so we smiled and waved a lot.

The gun went off.  Slowly the pack started moving, and after a few seconds I remembered to hit “Start” on my Garmin.  After a few blocks the 10K racers turned left onto a neighboring street, separating us from the 5K racers.  I wasn’t in a hurry and kept my pace easy for the first mile.  My first mile is always the slowest, on purpose.  I’ve learned my lesson about going out too fast and hard in the first part of the race!

Kathy and I started running together after about ¾ of a mile.  It was nice to talk with her; it felt more “normal” having a conversation with a friend while running.  One reason races feel weird to me is the utter lack of conversation.  I’m used to hearing lots of talking, laughter, and banter.

We talked for a while until we headed up a hill.  Finally I realized that I was turning around to talk to her.  “Come on,” I encouraged her, wanting her to keep up.  “No, go ahead,” she panted, as she fell a little further behind.  So, I went ahead.  I’ve mentioned before that I have one pace on hills, and that pace is “get up the hill”.

After a few minutes a girl came up on my left and stuck with me.  She said that she could see my pink wig waving in the breeze and decided that she was going to catch me and see if she could stick with me the rest of the way in.  I was mildly flattered at the idea that my pace was a goal for anyone.  Wow!  I explained that I try to do negative splits and that I was hoping to speed up as the miles add up.  She thought that sounded good, and we kept chatting.  Her name was Kristin and she’s from Longmont.  She’s training for the Las Vegas Half Marathon in December (another one!  Geez.  I’m starting to think it’s a trend I’m missing out on).  I told her about our Saturday morning running group and trail running.  She said it would be fun to do that sometimes to keep motivated.

We reached the top of another gradual hill and headed down.  As usual, I let my legs open up and coasted down the hill.  It always feels so good to open up the quads after putting so much into the hamstrings on the way up. 

At the next aid station Kristin caught up with me again.  We ran and talked another half mile or so before she quietly disappeared.  I was at mile 4.5 and it was time to put some speed in.  I increased my speed and turnover and just started cruising.  Heart rate felt good, breathing was even, and I was bummed my running partner had vanished.

I hit mile 5 and increased speed by another 20 seconds/mile.  The cruise was good, the morning was crisp and clear, and the sky was a beautiful blue.  At about half mile to go I came up on a tall, super-skinny teenager who was poking along.  In my endorphin-fueled state I decided to be helpful.

“Do you run cross country?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he panted.

“You are so much faster than me, come on, pick it up a little, just a little further then.” 

He did pick up his pace a little, but I didn’t stick around to see it all.  We turned right and ran along the side of the football field, where I was totally expected to turn directly onto the field because my Garmin said we were at 6.2 miles exactly.  However, we continued up the road another block, turned right and then right again onto the track and into the race shoot 100 meters later, which added .22 to the race that my GPS said I just ran.

Here are the splits, according to my Garmin:

Mile 1: 7:55

Mile 2: 8:08

Mile 3: 8:01

Mile 4: 7:54

Mile 5: 7:19

Mile 6: 6:57

Mile .42: 7:13

 I forgot to stop my timer when I went through the shoot; I remembered to stop it about 30 seconds later so this is what I have on my read-out:  49:17. 

The official time is 48:48, with an average pace of 7:52/mile.

There are more pictures of us at the race; click on the Picasa feed at the upper right part of this blog to scroll through them.  Or, Friend me on Facebook and see them all there!

Directly after the race yesterday and now, thinking about the splits, I could have picked up my pace by 20-30 seconds in the first half of the race without sacrificing too much at the end.  I think this is more about mental preparation than physical ability.

All in all, an absolutely fun race.  It was well-organized, the volunteers were cheerful and it was a hoot to run in costume.  I’ll do it again next year!