The Chandler Challenge is a first time event and I was expecting around 200 runners between the 10k and the 5k. There were three times that many runners and both races started at the same time. All the runners ran on the same course, so until the 5k'ers crossed the bridge at the 1.55 mark, it was crowded. This canal is the same canal that the Tumbleweed Running Club runs on, so it was familiar territory.
I started out fast, but comfortable and as you can see my splits went from the 10's to the 12's after mile two. That's when I started taking walk breaks.
This was a fund raiser for Chandler schools, so each elementary school had a team of teachers, parents and students walking, jogging and running. Most did the 5k, so once I was passed the 1.55 mark it got much less crowded. Unfortunately, more people were passing me on the back half of the course, than were being passed. I traded back and forth with a few people, but eventually they pulled away from me too.
I did have enough gas to kick it in gear for the final .2 and did that in a 10:50 mpm pace. I ran 89% of the race, so I just need to improve on that a bit. This was also the lightest I've weighed for a race (216), so that's got to help.
This is the third 10k I've run and the 30th race overall since August of 2006. As you can see in the graph below, it was my slowest 10k. I'll do the Mesa Turkey Trot again next month and hopefully will have a lot more stamina and get closer to my PR. At last years turkey trot I walked .26 miles of the course. Today I walked .67 miles.
Edit: It's actually my fourth 10k. I forgot I ran the New Times Five and Dime last November. That's where you race the 5k and then the 10k event back to back. I got about 10 minutes to rest in between events. I did the 10k portion in about 1:16:xx. So that would be my slowest. I'm doing both races again this November 9th.
On a personal note, my kid Tyler got his drivers license yesterday. He couldn't parallel park my Honda Pilot last week and had to retake the test. Yesterday, we took Amy's Toyota Sienna mini van and he did it on the first try. Then out on the road and after a long wait (it was the DMV after all) he got his new license. We celebrated by eating sushi for lunch, which accounts for my slight weight gain from yesterday. That darn white rice.
Good luck to anyone racing this weekend!
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