Carrboro 10k Race Report / The Duel with the Stroller

Last weekend was awesome, in so many ways.  The weather was crisp, cold and it felt like fall.  I didn't have to work (or refused to work two weekends in a row, take your pick).  I ran a competitive race, got a new PR and a great brunch afterwards.

Saturday morning was the Carrboro 10k, which starts at McDougle Middle School in Carrboro.  It was a nice cool morning, in the fifties.  Ian drove me there and we met Coach Tim and Rodney and Diane there.  I warmed up with a slow mile run into a nearby neighborhood, where I saw six deer hanging out in someone's front yard.  For a second I stopped, because my instinct is not to disturb the wildlife.  Then I remembered I'm in Carrboro, where deer are running rampant.  Forest rats!  I ran right past them and they ignored me.  I swear I could have caught one they were so close.

So, the race was great.  I’m really annoyed writing this now because I already wrote a post, and Blogger deleted it.  I guess text was too difficult to save.  KMA, Google.

So, you’re just going to get the short version:

Rodney took off like a rocket, I could not keep up.  I tried to keep a steady pace but it took a couple of miles of too fast, then too slow to figure it out.  I paced with one guy, until he sped up too fast for me.  Then I saw a man struggling, pushing a stroller ahead of me.  I was pretty beat and I just thought over and over that “Just beat the stroller”.  So, I passed him on the last hill coming to the middle school and it was great.  I said something like “nice job” to him as I passed him.  He probably took that as a challenge, because coming down the home stretch he tried to pass me on the high school track.

Noooooo!  I saw that wheel out of the corner of my eye and I had to turn up the speed.

There it is!

Can't catch me now!

I got a 10k PR, and I’m really happy with it.  48:13!  Just a couple of years ago I was trying to break 25 minutes in the 5k and now I can run twice that far at a faster pace than that.  I do feel I’ve got a faster 10k in me, if I had tapered for this race.  Let’s put this into the McMillan calculator and see what happens….

It gives me a slower time for the 5k than my current PR:  23:13, but a faster half marathon time:  1:47:29.  That sounds about right, since I seem to be faster at shorter distances first.  I still have hope that I can beat my 5k PR of 22:30 this weekend at the Neuse River Bridge Run 5k.  I picked it because it is a flat loop course, which is my favorite type of course.  I’m tapering for this one.  I just did a 4x400m workout in preparation, and it’s easy running from now until race day.

What about the rest of that weekend?  Well, Ian’s mom came out for the race and saw me finish, too!  Then she made us a great breakfast of sausage, eggs, bacon and pancakes!  That was great.  I may have to do more races in that area.  Roscoe ran 6 miles with me on Sunday, his longest run so far.  He was quick, too, consistently doing a 9:30 pace between short sniffing and “business” breaks.