Mesa Marathon 2023 10K

Race: Mesa Marathon 10K

Time: 51:06

Pace: 8:14 min/mile

Place overall: 165/1519

Age Division: 7/118 (F 30-34)

What I liked about this race: It is in the streets of my hometown! This year, the race ended in Riverview/Sloan Park, which was nicer than the Mesa Riverview parking lot. Watching the sun rise over the park lakes was truly beautiful!

What I didn't like this year: Packet pick-up was rough! The bibs apparently weren't organized alphabetically in their boxes (though the lines were), and it took a long time for the person to find mine. The person was nice about it, but it really did back up the line. (And in hindsight, we went for bib pick-up fairly early, so maybe they fixed this later in the day?) 

The race requires riding a bus to the start line, which makes the morning REALLY early. The start line park was not well lit. Runners had to use their cell phone lights to use the porta-potties. The porta-potties were also at a slant, which, let's just say, made using them a little interesting. The announcers told runners to wait by the few lights there were until the National Anthem played, and then move to the start line. The National Anthem was apparently late, because when they told runners to move to the starting line, they kept saying to "hustle" so that the race could start on time. Umm...we were following their instructions. The place the race started in the street sloped down to the right. Awkward!

Post-race, my husband had trouble getting to the parking area. It was hard for us to figure out how to connect, and we had to go a long way around to get through the detours and back to our house. Perhaps next year, when the race organizers have had a year to figure out the new race ending, the routing will be better?

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Training: I am to the point that I am making up training plans myself, or at least combining them to fit what I want to do. This is growth for me! This year, I combined Hal Higdon's (n.d.) novice plan  with Jenny Hadfield's Rock that 10-K advanced training plan (Women's Health, 2015). I ran at least one mile a day, added in a shorter run from the Hal Higdon plan, a workout from Jenny Hadfield's plan, and then the long run from Jenny Hadfield's plan. For cross-training, I threw in some Nourish Move Love (n.d.) workouts at the end of shorter runs. I also did a concurrent 30 days of yoga in January. Every day, I tried to do five minutes of stretching, followed by five minutes of foam rolling (How to Run Guide, 2018). I achieved this most days.

Race week: As noted in my taper crazy post, I only did one short workout the Monday of race week, followed by a rest day, and two 30 minute easy runs (Earles, 2023). I did not strength training. I finished my yoga program, so I just did my stretching and foam rolling.

I did make an intentional effort to go to bed earlier every night. I maybe only went to bed an average of 15 minutes or so early, but that added up. I actually got in bed about an hour early the night of the race, which was good given the early wake-up time.

I have read a lot about nutrition this year, and though I knew I did not need to carb load for a 10K, I did intentionally replace some of my normal lunch dairy/protein intake with brown rice to try to increase my glycogen stores. I made more carb heavy meals, and I tried to have a lot of carbs at snack the night before the race (like 5-7 servings of grains!) Yep, I felt a little bloated by week's end, but apparently that is normal if you carb load (Taylor, 2019). It is temporary discomfort to improve performance.

I normally stand on my feet a lot on Fridays, as that is my meal prep day. I intentionally did less of that this time. (Cooking ahead and freezing was a lifesaver.) I tried to stay active, but off my feet where I could.

The race itself: I got up at 3:45 am, eased into the day for a bit, and then did my physical therapy exercises and five stairs. Then out the door! I was an early arrival to the busses, which put me to the park by about 5 am. I did DuoLingo lessons for about half an hour and then I fueled myself with 8 oz of water and a ripe banana. I have realized through trial and error that I need fuel very shortly before I run, lest my body burn it all off and I bonk while racing!

It was COLD to start, okay, at least cold for me. It was in the mid-forties, and once I shed my hoodie in the drop bag, I was chilly, to the point of cramping chilly. I did my 0.5 mile warm-up prior to shedding the hoodie, hoping that would keep me warmer, not really.

The race start was odd, at a slant down to the right. I got off okay, though. I purposely put myself more to the front of the pack, but still had to weave through a few people. My goal was to run a 8:30/mile pace, and then try to pick it up at the end in hopes of a small PR. When I looked down just a bit into the race, it looked like I was running 8:30, and it felt good, so I just kept going.

I expected to bonk at about three miles (as that is historically where it gets hard), so I just tried to keep at my 8:30ish pace. Honestly, it felt like I was cruising, and I was so, so happy! I had quite a bit of anxiety race week, and a lot of negative self-talk trying to get in race morning. Every time I looked down at my phone and saw that I was keeping pace while feeling good, I thanked God and thanked my body.

I thought about not picking up pace at all. That would make any PR smaller, but easier to beat. But who knows when I will have this fitness again? Given that thought, I planned to pick up the pace (if I could) at mile four or five. I ended up deciding to try to get a little faster, and a little faster, and then go hard 5.2 miles to the finish. I do have two more races I want to run this spring, so I didn't want to actually toast myself. Looking at my splits, it does appears that I achieved my goal.

I picked off a few people at the end of the race, but not enough of the women to place. While it would have been amazing to place in my age bracket, I don't really care. I was competing with myself, and I am so happy with my results.

Post race: I felt pretty good, other than that my hands cramped. Maybe it was from running with my phone? (Yes,  still run old style, as I do not have a running watch that keeps accurate pace.) Thankfully that eventually wore off.

I saw the male and female half-marathon winners finish! Molly Seidel, the latest US Olympic marathon bronze medalist, stopped right in front of me and I took lots of pictures and fan-girled hard! She was so kind and congratulatory to her teammates, which was awesome to see. I glimpsed marathoner Steph Bruce from Flagstaff, and almost went up to her to ask for a photo, but I wasn't sure it was her, so I didn't. Maybe one day I will be brave enough to ask one of my heroes for a photo with them.

Final thoughts: At this stage of my running journey, I am learning that training and nutrition make a difference. More than that, though, I am learning about mindset. Having success makes me feel more pressure than ever to perform. Trying to change my mindset to focus on giving my all and doing my best on any given day has done wonders for me! Also, I am working on smiling while I run. I get to do this! Smiling also supposedly wards off stress (SCL Health, n.d.). That's good for racing, as the effort itself is stressful. All in all, I am just so grateful and happy. Grateful to God for health and resources to do this. Grateful to my husband, friends, and family for their support. Grateful for my body putting up with my running craziness. And happy. Maybe happy for just a day, but happy, and I plan to ride the wave and savor it for as long as I can.

References:

Earles, S. (2023, February 3). Crazy, or taper crazy? Simple, Sacred, Sweet. https://simplesacredsweet.blogspot.com/2023/02/crazy-or-taper-crazy.html

Higdon, H. (n.d.). 10K training: Novice. Hal Higdon. https://www.halhigdon.com/training-programs/10k-training/novice-10k/

How to Run Guide. (2018, July 22). The complete guide to foam rolling for runners. https://howtorunguide.com/foam-rolling-for-runners/

Nourish Move Love. (n.d.) Videos [YouTube channel]. Retrieved February 4, 2023 from https://www.youtube.com/c/nourishmovelove/videos.

SCL Health. (n.d.) The health benefits of smiling. https://www.sclhealth.org/blog/2019/06/the-real-health-benefits-of-smiling-and-laughing/

Taylor, J. (2019, February 13). 7 things you need to know about carb loading if you're into exercise. Cosmopolitan. https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/body/diet-nutrition/a26097531/carb-loading-marathon-running/.

Women's Health. (2015, July 7). The training plan that'll help you run your first--or fastest!--10-K. https://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/a19981641/10-k-training-plan/