Boogie that Bosque!

This morning Husband and I and my running partner ran a 10K all terrain race in the beautiful bosque. Last year it was mid-forties for this race. Yesterday it was 32 degrees at 7am. I wasn't sure what to expect weather-wise, but was happy when I checked the weather and saw 41 degrees at 6:30am. Decided to wear a light pair of tights, a short sleeve shirt under a long sleeve shirt, light gloves, and a beanie.  I also put my number on a race belt so that I could remove my long sleeve shirt if needed and still have the number out front since the timing device was on the back of the race number.

On our way to boogie that bosque!

If you recall, my goals for the race were something on the order of  "Don't fall, have fun, meet or beat last years time (1:03:14) and 1:02:00 would be even better."

I probably should have spent a little more time determining a race strategy to achieve those goals.  Preferably one where we didn't start out too fast.  But I didn't (determine a race strategy).  And I did (start out too fast).

The way this course is laid out is that you start out on a hard surface road, then you turn onto a wide dirt road, then into beautiful single track for a few miles.  Then it brings you out of the single track onto dirt road for a long stretch before you finish back on the hard surface.  Personally, I find the single track difficult to run in, but it is a lot of fun and very pretty.  The dirt road is much easier and nice on the joints, my favorite running surface overall.  And the hard surface is of course the fastest, but probably the most boring.

Splits for the race

Anyway, while running this race, I remembered why I don't like 10Ks.  For me it is too far to maintain a 'fast' pace, but too short to really slow down and have fun like I do for half-marathons.  I expected to be a little behind a 10:00 pace while in the single track, be able to maintain close to 10:00 pace on the dirt road, and then and then make up time on the hard surface, and this is generally what happened.  I kept my eye on the cumulative time at each mile marker and knew I was on track to hit my 1:02 goal if I could push it for the final bit. But admittedly, I was really struggling at the end.

My final time was logged as 1:01:44 gun time, 1:01:38 net time (I think that is taking into consideration when I crossed the start mat).  6th of the 20 women in my age group (F45-49); 83 of 221 women running the 10K.  Not only did I make my 1:02:00 goal and a beat my time from last year for this particular all terrain course, but it was actually a 10K best for me by about 30seconds.  WoooHooo!!

Final thoughts:  This is a great course because of the venue, absolutely beautiful this time of year. So glad we ran it even though I'm not a fan of 10Ks.  I keep thinking I might have it in me to break an hour on a flat road race, but I dislike this distance enough to keep me from actually testing that theory.