Running Revisited: TC-10 Recap and Remembering Why I Do This

It's been a year since I updated this blog, and since this is a running blog, here's the quick rundown: I ran a bunch of 5Ks in my quest to continue racing and enjoying running -- while staying injury free. And it's worked pretty well! Life is pretty good and I've mostly stayed on the horse, so to speak. I'm very grateful for that.

So about those 5Ks...I haven't had a desire to run longer, really. Training for a 5K can be just as challenging as a marathon, in my opinion, since it's a different kind of hurting. It doesn't get the respect it deserves, but I've enjoyed it immensely. I still do long runs but there's plenty of faster stuff, too, and it just feels good. I've loved training for a race, running it and if it doesn't go well, hey! Try again next week. It satisfies that small desire in me to keep following structured training and doing something (un)comfortably challenging every now and then.

That leads up to yesterday, the TC 10 Mile -- my longest race in two years. My last race longer than 5K was the Detroit Marathon in 2013, and then I had foot surgery in 2014. Yesterday's race was the culmination of a FANTASTIC weekend that had other fun happenings. I'm now one of the Oiselle Volee team leaders, and with my co-leader Jana, planned a pre-race shakeout run and breakfast on Saturday before the race for Oiselle team members in town for the TCM events. I met so many new people and was blown away by the enthusiasm and support of our group. I've been a part of the Oiselle team for a little more than two years now and have always known this is a special group, and it's been so awesome as we add new people to see the support and friendships grow. I'll have to write separately about this some time and can't say enough about this group and how much it has rejuvenated my running. Thank you to all who came.

Back to the race: I had very modest expectations. I broke my 5Ks-only streak signing up for this because it is an EVENT. Twin Cities in Motion puts on a spectacular series of events on marathon weekend and I wanted to take part! So, I did more 10-mile-specific training to get ready, but that didn't mean too much to me in terms of my confidence. I have trained for other races and then executed really poorly, which typically means going out too fast and then dying a miserable death. There was a time a long time ago when I didn't do this and ran faster than I do now. But I'm trying to get past that and run for different reasons now, knowing that my PRs may be behind me and I have to find joy in other things if I want to continue this.

So, onto the race! Race morning was fantastic. I carpooled with my friends Nordica and Angie to the start, where we met up with Casey and Taylor to warm up. It was about 45 degrees--crisp, but AWESOME running weather. The mood was light and fun. My mindset was perfect.

Fast forward to the start.We saw Nicole, who was starting in the championship field, and all wished each other good luck before getting to our spots. I knew Angie, Nordica and Taylor would all be running faster (huge congrats to all three for PRing, by the way), so I tried to find a spot a little further back, where I subsequently ran into Oiselle teammate Lisa to my left and high school friends Sarah and Ian behind me. Slightly ahead to my left, I saw Jenny and Carrie and we all waved. Further down to my left, Jason (who was running the marathon) hopped up on a ledge to take pictures, and smiled and waved. THIS is what is awesome about our running community--the people! I felt surrounded by friends and excitement. It was wonderful.

Soon we were off. Now, my goal going in this race was to run around 75 minutes. I've done this race once before and it was unfortunately a miserable experience, though, so I was cautious in setting that goal. In 2013, when I last ran it, I went out too fast, and by mile 5, when you hit Summit Ave., I was TOAST. Thus, one of my goals for this year was to keep it controlled for the first half to avoid repeating that awful experience, and hopefully come close to my goal. Since I hadn't run a race longer than 5K in two years it was tough for me to imagine how I would feel.

I immediately took stock of things and was happy with how it felt. It felt faster than a training effort but it was a pace I knew I could build on, which was ideal since the race is really hilly in the first half. If you pace it well, you can pick things up in the second half to really take advantage of the downhill to the finish. I should note I didn't have a Garmin on; it's one of the big changes I've made to how I run races and it worked pretty well. I honestly don't know how I would have run if I had one on. I think I can be a bit of a head case when racing and all the feedback I seem to need is what my body tells me. Anyway, I went through the first mile in 7:31 (I took splits manually on my stopwatch) and was pleased.

The subsequent miles were fairly uneventful. I tried to keep my effort even and continued to take my mile splits. Focusing on effort seemed to work, and miles 2-7 were 7:14, 7:27, 7:11, 7:33, 7:36, 7:32. You can see where the hills were and while I would like to see those all closer to that 7:11 mile, I was pretty happy with how things were going; the other miles were much more in line with what I expected to run. 

Between miles 7 and 8, the course has a nice downhill into a fairly long flat stretch. It's here where I saw the TC Running Company cheer zone where Derek was spectating with Kurt, Adam, Kim, Chad and whole bunch of other people and HOLY HELL was it exciting. I could hear them (and the music) from several blocks away and felt my knees lift a little higher and my pace pick up a little. I yelled back at them when I ran by and Derek claims I did a double fist pump. I don't remember that but know I was excited to feel so good and see them all. A block or so later I passed the mile 8 marker in 7:09. Perhaps I should work on lifting my knees like that more often.

Between miles 8 and 9, there's another slight rise in the road and I was starting to get that sense of "just get this over with." I passed mile 9 in 7:28. Between miles 9 and 10, the course turns left and then after a few blocks it's a pretty long downhill into the finish, which can be pretty great if you're feeling good or pretty torturous if you're not, since you can see the finish for quite a while. I don't remember much at this point except for the thought that hey, this felt a lot better than the last time I ran it! My 10th mile clocked in at 7:07, and my official finish time was 1:13:49, which is 5 seconds faster than what I had on my watch.

After I finished I found Nordica, Angie, Casey and Nicole and soon learned they all ran PRs. Amazing! We had a celebratory beer (thank you Summit) from the beer truck and rehashed our races...and then hurried to run back to mile 24 to watch the marathon with the TC Running Company crew and my Oiselle friends who were also able to join. Cheering at mile 24 has become an annual event, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to run the marathon again because I love cheering with this crew so much. It was a great way to cap off a fun race morning and reminded me of everything I love about this sport: the people you meet along the way who are all trying to be the best version of themselves at that point in time. I don't know what's next, but I'll carry the joy and fun of this day with me for a long time.

I snagged the following pictures of our Saturday Oiselle meet up off Facebook...thanks to Melissa for the pre-shakeout run shot!