Great Allegany Run 15K - 10/6/12

I haven't disappeared or fallen off the wagon.  I'm still losing weight and running.  I'm on a pretty good schedule now with my workouts.  I'm a little sad to see the daylight dwindling - it's making it harder to fit in my runs.

Anyhow, on to my race report!

This was my longest distance to date.  I trained for the past several weeks and my last long run was 8.3 miles.  I went in to this race confident that I'd have a decent time.  It's touted as a downhill race.  It starts at around 1200 ft and finishes around 600 ft.

The weather was not ideal.  It was threatening rain and did rain a little on the way to the race, but held out during the race itself.  It was a pretty cool morning, but not as cold as some mornings that I've run.  I managed to forget to grab my inhaler before we left the house.  I didn't realize it until we were too far away from home to turn around without being late.  If it weren't a mostly flat/downhill race, I don't know that I could have done 9.3 miles without my inhaler.

I made sure that I didn't start out too fast and get carried away by the downhill.  I had looked at the race results from last year and knew I'd be pretty close to last and I made peace with that.  I wasn't too sad when everyone took off and left me in the dust.  It was a beautiful course through the Allegany Mountains with the leaves changing, so I tried to focus on that.

I passed two people in the beginning, but I could hear them on my heels the whole way - it was an extra push when it got a little tough.  The last two miles killed me, though.  I hadn't started experimenting with different fuels yet, but I probably could have used something.  Between not having my iPod (I left it in the car b/c I was afraid it would downpour on me) and not having my inhaler, everything past the 7 mile marker was really hard!  Eventually those two people I had passed in the beginning, and kept behind me the whole way, passed me.

There was one small hill near the end (much smaller than the hills I usually run), but I was having a hard time mentally getting through that last mile and I did walk a little bit during that.  I don't have any fancy gadgets, so I didn't really know what my pace was or even what time it was.  I figured that instead of the 11:30 pace I was aiming for was out the window and settled for what I figured would be a 12:00 or higher pace....

And then I rounded that last corner toward the finish line and saw the clock at 1:41:xx and picked it up a bit. I crossed right at 1:42:30 - a 10:59 pace.  I was thrilled.  I was still 141/144, but I am okay with that.  I know I could have done better if I had my inhaler and music probably would have helped when things got tough, too.  It's a good starting point, though.  It was a great, local race and I think I'll make it a yearly tradition - I look forward to beating my time next year!!