The Southside Scorcher was less than scorching this year.
I love this race, even though every year my goal has eluded me. 2014, I was a noob. Time: 1:01:24 (9:53). 2015, it was HOT. Time: 1:01:32 (9:55). 2016, I was coming back from injury. Time: 1:02:33 (10:04).
Excuses. Excuses.
My ONLY goal for this year was to break an hour. That’s it. I really took it easy after Tinman. I went from 8 hours of hard training per week to 4-5 hours of super easy workouts. And I had just run hard-ish at the Firecracker 4 mile only 5 days before.
The start feels super low key. Like a bunch of friends lining up to run 6 miles together. I told myself 9:40 pace or better. A nice round 9:30 sounded good.
The course is a great out and back winding a tad through a neighborhood and then running the OJ Watson park roads and a little double figure 8 on the South Broadway bridge before heading back. I love out and back race courses. You get to see your fast friends come at you and encourage your slow friends behind you.
Mile 1: 9:13
Ok…that’s good. I felt REALLY good. Stride was really smooth. Breathing was good. I had brought my small handheld water bottle with my beloved BASE salt. I took two hits of salt every mile like I did at Tinman. It wasn’t quite as hot, but it was humid and I was sweating.
Mile 2: 9:06
Really? I don’t feel like I’m running that fast.
Mile 3: 9:01
I saw a lot of 8s in the pace number every time I looked down at my Garmin. I was just running and feeling good. A PR didn’t even enter my mind.
Mile 4: 9:01
Same as mile 3. I took my lemonade Huma gel. More salt. Dumped water on my front and back at the water stations.
Mile 5: 9:04
I was staring at my overall time on my Garmin, and my brain clicked. Could I PR? I set my current 10K PR earlier this year at Easter Sun Run with a 57:24*, but I could not remember the pace! I didn’t think it was in the super low 9s. Then and there I decided to hold on as hard as I could to the 9:0x pace.
Mile 6: 9:14
Of course, as soon as PR thoughts enter my head, my breathing got harder and my legs got heavier. I start ticking off the minutes left. The last mile is tough because you have to run around the backside of the school in the sun and then across the parking lot to get to the stadium.
Last Sprint: 8:01
I tossed my water bottle at the entrance to the track. The race director was standing there and I hollered at her that I would come back for it. I had a PR to get! I crossed with a 57:01 (9:11 pace)!!
PR face. Oh that last sprint hurt. My legs were so done! I had done PiYo Buns two days before and had a major cause of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). The good news is this run pretty much cleared that lactic acid out and I felt good the rest of the weekend.
The PR glow. The president of my running club snapped this picture after giving me a few moments to recover! I facetimed Mr. Neon to tell him. Every year Titan 10K is my race that I get all to myself, since Mr. Neon races Waterfront the next day. I was over the moon on the facetime call! PRing my 10K in the middle of a July Kansas Summer! Nothing more confidence boosting than that!
Hopefully this means good things for my attempt at a big half marathon PR later this fall.
Stay neon!
*For some reason, I thought my 10K PR was 57:19 and set in 2016. I have no idea where I got that number. I don’t count PRs unless they happen in races, so it wouldn’t be a random training run time stuck in my head. I went back and looked at the official race results and checked my Garmin Connect history and couldn’t find where I got that number.
Neon Runner Girl 