Upton 15k

I ran the Upton 15k on this lovely sunny day. My plan was to run 6:21 pace for the first 10k, then pick it up and make a race out of the last 5k. I didn't want to be sore all next week and I raced hard last weekend and wasn't in the mood for it this weekend. I'd convinced myself before the race that I wasn't going to be competitive. I was just going to do my own thing and run my own pace.

Then in the first half-mile, I saw a lady in the corner of my eye. My inner cocky self didn't want to be beat, so I decided to scrap my previous plan and be competitive anyway. The first mile was at 5:59. She was still there. Mile two came by at 12:02 - still there. Around the 5k, she dropped back enough that I couldn't hear her breathing but I thought she was still too close. I don't like looking back, so I didn't check. I don't like leaving things to the sprint either, so I thought I'd keep hauling buns to put some distance between us.

I guess it worked. I found a few guys who were moving at 6-minute pace. They'd run quite evenly paced up and down the hills, while I'd trudge up and lose them on the uphill then blow past them on the downhill. We ran together-ish until mile 8, where I picked up the pace a little. The finish is mostly downhill, so I led our little pack in at 56:28.

Tom had told me to warm down by running him to the finish, but Tom was done by the time I put my shoes and long-sleeve shirt on to go warm down. He was fast today - 7:0something pace. I didn't realize he'd finished so I went to do my warmdown and figured he'd finished once I started seeing 90-year-old guys trudging in and strollers and whatnot. Tom's not that slow.

So there's the race. I don't feel nearly as awful as after last week's 10k, so hopefully I won't be so flat on the track on Tuesday.

Only two more weeks until the marathon!

-Emily