Quick post to record yesterday’s Fort Eustis 10k at Newport News, Virginia. The one and only time I ran this race was back in 2006 where I finished in 2nd place with a time of 37:41. This year, after recently missing almost a week of training due to sickness, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but secretly hoped to break 37 minutes.
My legs were heavy during the warm up and I kind of wished I’d taken the day off on Friday instead of running a lunchtime 6 miler in the sun. Oh well, nothing I could about it now.
I lined up at the start, which was delayed by a couple of minutes, and before long the race was underway. A small group set off pretty fast. I settled into about 5th or 6th place and watched the 2 leaders effortlessly extend their lead. I soon found myself in third place and passed the one mile mark in 5:49 – not a bad pace, but it didn’t feel as easy as it probably should have.
Mile two was uneventful but a little quicker (5:47), with the third mile coming in at another 5:49.
From here I started to feel tired. I was clear in third place but working hard to maintain a quick cadence. Every time I stopped thinking about it, my pace slowed and I had to tell myself to pick it up again. Today wasn’t one of those “like clockwork” days.
I was happy to keep mile four at 5:54 and mile five 5:57, but I couldn’t do anything about the sixth mile being slower than 6 minutes (6:04 to be precise). Finally I could see the line and I managed to quicken slightly for a 36:45 finish – not too bad considering the warmer weather and amount of miles on my legs this week.
Seriously AWESOME race! You made your goal and hung in there despite being a little tired and worn out from being sick 🙂 I was sick all last week too, and raced yesterday as well. Congrats on a superior performance! –Alex (aka run350)