I did a 10K this morning; it was the annual Arizona Road Racers "I Did A
Run". It was my first 10, and was on the same course as my first 5K of
the year, which I did in early June. The 5K runners did one lap, and
the 10K runners did two laps.
I set a goal to do it at a 14:45 pace, and wound up doing it at a 14:47
pace, but I didn't do it the way I had wanted to do it.
I set out way too fast--at my 5K race pace. I knew that I should have
started out much more slowly, but for some reason I just couldn't slow
down. So I decided to keep that pace as long as I could, with the
understanding that I would pay for it later. I just hoped that the fee
wouldn't be too high.
At about the 2.9 mile point, there was a girl bent over at the side of
the road. I asked if she was OK and she said she was; as I came even
with her, I could see that she was crying and having dry heaves. So I
asked "Are you sure you're OK?" and when she answered that she wasn't, I
stopped and offered to walk in with her. We got about half way to the
finish line when her father reached us; I told him that she had been
crying and trying to throw up, then left her in his care and started
running again.
I was tempted to stop at 5K because I knew that the second 5K would be
very tough because of my poor strategy in the first 5K. But I resisted
that temptation, and continued. I ran the fourth and fifth miles
slowly, but finished the sixth mile at a 14:50 pace, and the last
quarter mile at a 12:51 pace.
--
Crossing the starting line is 90%.
Crossing the finish line is the other 90%.