Capitol Hill Classic 10K – 2015
It’s hard to do lengthy race reports for shorter races. They’re over so quickly that I don’t have time to remember much about them.
The Course
It’s a pretty good course. It starts at a school in Capitol Hill that the race benefits. There are a few turns in the beginning, but it’s pretty much a straight shot to RFK Stadium on East Capitol Street and back. It’s a slight downhill going out and slight uphill coming back. At the stadium, the course goes through a parking lot, which is a little boring. Otherwise, there’s nice crowd support along the course to keep things interesting.
The Weather
The weather was strange. It was 72 degrees and humid at the start, but with some very light sprinkles. I wore my club’s racing singlet, shorts, and a visor. I also had sunglasses with me just in case the cloud cover burned off. (It didn’t).
Pre-Race
I drove downtown and park about 4 blocks from the school by 7:15/7:30am – plenty of time for the 8:30am start. Any later and I think I would have had trouble finding a spot as close to the start as I did. I picked up my packet and then went back to my car. I went back to use the port-a-potties and then back to my car for my sunglasses. And then back to the start with about 15 minutes to spare. I wasted a lot of energy going back and forth.
Before the race, I thought 7:00-7:15 pace might be a reasonable based on my 4 mile run at Ragnar Cape Cod.
Early Miles
I felt good during the first mile. My stride felt strong and the pace didn’t feel labored at all. And then all of a sudden, I knew I had to slow down. Immediately. I’m not sure what went wrong except my legs suddenly felt like they didn’t have any “pop” and my turnover just wasn’t there. I was tired. I thought to myself, “You might hit 7:15 the hard way”.
Then, I thought maybe I could take it easy through the first three or four miles and my legs would feel better. “Yeah, right. Has anyone ever felt STRONGER in the second half of a 10K?” I slowed down with the hope that I could speed up later. But about mid-way through the race, I knew I was already running to finish and shouldn’t care too much about my time.
Later Miles
I actually did get a little bit of a second wind during the parking lot at RFK. In years past, I found this section a bit soul-sucking but I didn’t mind it this time. The uphill immediately after the parking lot, though, slowed me down again. It took another mile or so before I felt my energy returning.
Once the pressure of racing well was off, I had a bit of fun at the end of the race and high-fived a bunched of kids – including two little kids that were sitting on the ground with their hands out, which required me to get down pretty low. I really appreciated the community involvement from the volunteers to the people in the neighborhood.
I ran a pretty strong last half mile. I was out-kicked at the finish by a guy that was hanging off my shoulder for the last half/quarter mile. I hate being out-kicked.
Splits: 6:52, 14:30 (I missed the mile marker), 7:44, 8:32, 7:53, 1:36.
Result
Official time was 47:09. Not what I wanted time-wise, but I was the 36th woman and 6th in my 10 year age group.
Epilogue
Next up: Lawyers Have Heart 10K on June 13th. (I scratched the Alexandria Running Festival Half Marathon).
