New 10K PR - Lone Gull 10K - Gloucester, MA

Official Results: 19th OA, 14th AG M20-39, Time: 36:09 (5:49/mile) NEW PR

I had signed up for this race hoping to crush my 10k PR because the course was mostly flat and I knew that I had a good shot at doing it and that is exactly what I did! I ended up beating my old PR by 4:33!

The race didn't start till 9am, but with the race about an hour away Jess and I were up at 5:45am and we left our place at 7am so we could be there at 8am. Once we got there, I checked in and had about 30 minutes to warm up and stretch out because where registration was and where the start line was, was a bit of a walk. It was a great location to have the race since it was at Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester.

I knew that going into this race I wouldn't be finishing in the top 10 so I was just hoping for a top 20 finish considering a lot of clubs run in this event it attracts a lot of fast runners. Once the gun went off the race was on and the first mile came to fast at 5:18 and I was about 10th and the lead pack was definitely under 5:00! I quickly readjusted and let off a little since I had continued at that pace I would quickly fade and not have anything left to finish. During the race my legs just felt heavy, sluggish and dead. It was a strange feeling since I haven't felt that way before. I was worried because I thought I wouldn't be able to hit the time I wanted, but once I got through the first few miles I knew that I was still on pace. I hit the 5k mark at 17:39 and felt good. A few more people were catching me, but I wasn't concerned, I wanted to race my race.

All and all it was a good race, I'm just not sure I would run it again. The race I thought wasn't very well organized unless you had done it before. There was no one there to direct you to where you needed to pick up your numbers and where the start line was, etc. I'm just thrilled that I was able to get my 10k PR and my 5K PR within a few months of each other. It's been a great year in running for me this year with all the my records falling. I'm really looking forward to concentrating more on running I think next year than triathlons. If I do any triathlons next year it might be a few sprints and olympics, no halfs or fulls since I don't have the time to train for those with my new commute to and from work being so far away.

After we got the results Jess and I decided to make an afternoon of it since we hadn't been up to Gloucester in a very long time. So we ended up driving to downtown and walked around for a bit and checked out the stores and then headed home.

Here are my mile splits from my Garmin Forerunner:
Mile 1 - 5:18
Mile 2 - 5:52
Mile 3 - 5:48
Mile 4 - 6:02
Mile 5 - 5:54
Mile 6 - 6:04
Last 2/10 Mile - 5:10