Black Earth 10 mile race

This past Saturday, I ran the Black Earth 10 mile race with Jesse, Regina, and my friend Barry.  This was my first race and I'm glad I did it.  I haven't really been timing myself accurately for any of my training runs.  I tend to forget to look at the clock before I leave the house.  Plus, I walk about 3 blocks before I start my run, and walk 3 blocks afterward, and I have to estimate how much time that actually takes.  The kitchen clock is also some number of minutes ahead of my computer clock.  I look at the computer clock before I get ready for my run, the kitchen clock when I get back.  It's all very non-scientific.

Anyway, I was guessing that I'm averaging about 10 minute/mile on these runs.  That seemed to be on track despite the distance I was running.  I was quite happy with this since I started last fall with the idea that I was probably going to run the half marathon at a pace of 12 min/mile.  That is, I was happy with this pace until I ran Black Earth.  The course for Black Earth is an out and back course.  It kind of took the wind out of my sails when at about 3.5 miles, these elite runners were already on their way back.  And then there was John Heim.  At about 2.4 miles, a runner passes me with the sign "Blind Runner" running with someone else while holding onto a short rope.  John Heim, who's blind and 52 years old finished at about 1 hour 27 min.  I had a final time of 1:34:28.

I need to work on my pacing.  I ran the first 2 miles at a pace of 8:30 min/mile, hit my slow point (as I usually do around 2-3 miles) and slowed pretty significantly.  I then hit my stride about a mile later and at the 5 mile turnaround, I was at 46:48.  I maintained what felt a pretty consistent pace for the second half, and had enough left in me to sprint the last .2 miles.  I finished with an average pace of 9.5 min/mile.  I think if I were better at pacing, I would have been able to do the distance at a consistent 9.25 min/mile pace.  At my current level, I'm predicted to finish the half marathon in 2 hours and 5 minutes.  With the Madison half marathon 7 weeks away, I'm going to set a goal of better pacing (ideally a consistent 9 min/mile) and finishing the half in under 2 hours. 

I haven't ran a 1 mile race in years, but in middle school and high school, we had to run a timed 1 mile for a grade in our physical education course.  My very first time, I ran the mile in 9:12.  My times got consistently better over the years, but my best was only 8:00.  According to all the prediction calculators online, if I want to run the half in less than 2 hours, I should be capable of running a mile in 7:51.  We'll see how well that works out.