Run Chikin Run 10k Race Report

Hail my running brothers and sisters!  This has been a mixed-bag kind of day for me.  As I type this report, my beloved Vols fell apart in the second half of the game with Oregon.  The realist in me knew it would be a tough game, but I hoped it would be close.  The orange kool-aid drinking fan in me thought we really had a chance to steal the game after we scored our first touchdown.  But as I've said before this weekend, early projections don't mean crap.  You still have to play, and the final score is all that matters.  Ugh.

That being said, this is a race report for the Run Chikin Run 10k in Murfreesboro, TN (or it will be after I wipe the tears off of my keyboard and pull my remote out of the TV.  I'm very bitter.), and early projections suggested that I would have all the elements in this race for a PR.  The course is relatively flat, the field is not enormous (531 timed finishers), and the weather was not overly hot (but fairly humid).  Of course, I ran this race last year and scored a PR then of 44:59.  This year, I ran it in 44:49 (My splits were 6:41. 7:00, 7:05, 7:32, 7:14, 7:13 and 2:04), another PR, finished 3rd in the 35-39 age group, 23rd in the men's division and 29th overall.  

I'm not going to bore you with all the details (that's what long distance race reports are for), but I will give you the highlights.  I tweaked my right calf from over-training, so I wasn't all that fired up for this race.  I figured my injury would hurt my chances at my goal time of 43:23.  Keeping that in mind, my only strategy was to go out hard and hope that I could find a pacer to drag me in.  During the race, I thought my pace was faster than it was early on, but by the middle I knew that I had lost it.  I did find a pacer, Sue Scholl (who got 2nd in her age group.  Congrats!), but I started my finishing kick too early and fizzled out at the end.  Still, I finished better than I thought (and probably deserved with my bone-headed strategy).  While I'm down that I didn't get my goal for the year, I'm now stoked to get back into training and prove that I have what it takes to finish the year strong.  I may not get my marathon goal, but by God, it won't be because I didn't bleed for it. Keep the faith, homies.

P.S.  Congrats to my buddy, Matty B.  He finished the race 10th in his age group with a time of 54:02.  Nice one.