the day i thought i ran my fastest 10k, but ended up not because my memory is shot

I met up with Felix, who was visiting from out of town, to do the Trailblazer 10k this morning. The morning started off colder than I was expecting, about 46 degrees as I drove over to Mountain View. What is with this winter thing anyway? I was worried about being underdressed, with a tank top and shorts, but figured it would be sunny and once I warmed up it would be perfect running weather.

I found Felix at the bib pickup, and from there, we went to toss stuff in our cars and make a quick pit stop before embarking on an easy warmup. At the start area, I sent Felix up to the front to join the fast pack, and bumped into Catherine, one of the women from the Wednesday night track workouts. I was chatting with Catherine and the next thing we realized was that they had started the race. Oops!

And we were off... it wasn't too long before I realized that I was regretting Friday night's indulgences at the Cheesecake Factory for Martha's birthday. As you can see by my splits below, I was having some trouble maintaining a consistent pace. I was trying to find that comfort zone that I've found doing the last 2 miles of my Huddart loop runs, but I couldn't quite get the pacing right. And hells yeah, I'm blaming Cheesecake Factory.

Here are my split times:
Mile 1: 8:21
Mile 2: 8:28
Mile 3: 8:45
Mile 4: 8:18
"1 mile to go": 10:53
"Last mile": 8:49

My official time was 53:46, good for 10th in the F30-39 division. Not too shabby overall.

So, all during the run, I had been thinking that my 10k PR was a 56:something, so I when I realized I was going to run under 55 minutes, I was quite happy with my performance. Unfortunately, I got home and realized that my 10k PR was actually 53:35. No longer happy! I am so kicking myself for missing my PR by 11 seconds. I totally could have kicked it harder that last 2 miles if I didn't think I was already cruising to a PR. And that is how I experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, all in the same race. Grr!!!

Oh well. At least it was a course PR, having taken 3:37 off that time. And I didn't toss my cookies this time. That's something, right?

Would you believe I won a prize? OK, it was just a raffle prize, but I won a prize nonetheless. I had my choice of water bottles, wilderness books, or Microsoft tshirts that said "geek" on the front. I almost got a "geek" shirt for Bryan, but decided that since I had put in the effort to do the 10k, this was my freakin' raffle prize. I opted for a copy of The Tahoe Rim Trail - A Complete Guide For Hikers, Mountain Bikers, and Equestrians.

And as for Felix the multisport stud... he ran a 39:something, which was good for 7th overall and 3rd in his division. Wow! He's off to the St. George Marathon next Saturday, where I know he'll kick some serious butt and run that 3:10 marathon to qualify for Boston.

After the race, we met up with 2 of his buddies from his old triathlon team and headed over to the California Ave. farmers market. I thoroughly enjoyed my deelish crepe stuffed with crab while they shared some crazy endurance event stories. I will say now that the Furnace Creek 508 is definitely not for me!