Early Bird 10 Miler Race Recap
Short: Wind, Hills, Beat my Goal
Long:
The hosting race company (Pink Gorilla) puts on a great race with a fun atmosphere, so I was excited to run the inaugural Early Bird 10 Miler. Knowing that rD accepts 10 milers as a marathon POT, this was a great chance to try for that too.
My husband and I set off for Omaha on Friday. I choose to abstain from meat on Fridays during lent, so figuring out what to eat was a bit of a challenge as my normal pre-race meal was out. Despite the lack of protein, cheese pizza treated me ok. I slept terribly and after waking up every 30 min, at 2:30am I thought, “I wish this was a Disney race so I could just get up now!”
Advanced packet pick up was only available on Thursday, so I needed to pick up my race packet the morning of. I parked in my previously assigned lot and the walk to the start area was about 12 min and hilly. As I was walking back to my car to drop of my shirt, I realized my legs were already tired from just walking up the hills. Not good!
The weather forecast was terrible. The temperature dropped all morning, due to the 20-30 mph winds, gusting over 40 mph. I waited in my car for a while and the wind was shaking my car, thus shaking my confidence.
I headed to the starting area, lining up at the back of the 11:00/front of the 12:00 pace flags. My goal was to run 11:45mm, getting a McMillan calculated POT of <5:29:59 for marathon weekend. I had trained for this pace, but the poor racing conditions made me unsure that this could happen. I saw a gal in the same area with a mickey baseball cap on, so I talked to her a while about Disney and running, a great way to pass the time and ease my nerves. (I hope she had a great race!)
After running 1 min uphill and into the wind, I decided to revert to my tried and trusted 2:1 interval, despite many training miles at 3:1. I think this was a good choice, allowing me to save a little energy for later in the race. Around mile 2, we entered a large lake area, making for a beautiful (and cold) course. The trail was a little narrow in some areas, but overall it was a great course. There were water stops every couple miles, a gu stop and multiple cheer stations.
Being constantly whipped in the wind was exhausting, both physically and mentally. After mile 6, I did the #math and knew if I kept my pace, I could still meet my goal. I did some serious pep talking in mile 7, trying to convince myself the discomfort now would be far less than not meeting my goal.
I crossed the finish line at 1:57:02, beating my goal time by 31 sec. I am proud of my effort and excited to think about what’s to come, knowing I could have raced faster in different conditions. McMillan estimated this at a 5:28:31 marathon and honestly, I’ll be so disappointed if runDisney doesn’t calculate it similarly.
The post race breakfast was a delicious combination of donuts, cinnamon rolls, fruit, a breakfast burrito and seriously great coffee. Definitely would recommend this race to anyone close to Omaha! The early bird does get the worm after all!
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