Seattle Marathon Association 10K

For tonight's installment of "Remember! Work!" a non-work story: a description of the 10K race -- my first of the year -- that I ran Saturday morning.

I started out feeling great. The course was fast. I cooked along the first 5000 meters at 7.5-minute-mile pace. They didn't call out splits at the three-mile marker, but they did at mile one and mile two. Mile one was 7:40. Mile two was 15:00. So for my 5K time I probably ran a personal best, a 23-and-change. 

Then shortly after mile three I blew up. I was running, keeping pace, with a beautiful Asian woman with whom I had chatted at the beginning of the race. She was shooting for a 48, at least something under 50. At mile one she said that she thought we were going too fast. She said that she would continue to follow from behind. I was feeling good. I said, "Good." Then somewhere shortly after mile three she blew by me without a word and was gone. I struggled through mile four and mile five. The last mile I got my act together a bit. I finished with a 50:43, official time; 8:10 pace. I'd say my friend -- judging by where she was at the mile five marker, which was the last time I saw her, way up ahead -- ran a 48, maybe a 47.

Last year I ran a 51:46. A full minute improvement is better than I expected, and good enough considering that I was not properly trained up for this event. I need to be able to run a long run during the work week, something I can't do now because of my commute. My best 10K is the Husky Dawg Dash from October of 2011 when I was doing a lot of those long runs after work. I ran a 48 then I think.

I suffered tremendously Saturday morning. Miles four and five were a real test. My monkey mind was chattering away -- no, howling -- "Stop! You can't do this! What are you doing! No!" -- on and on. At a certain point I have to remember -- in a more timely fashion -- to stop resisting and just let the pain in. I did that finally with maybe a half-mile left in the race. Then it wasn't so bad.

I mention this tale of the 10K in a "Remember! Work!" post because it's vitally important to have something real in which to immerse oneself outside of work, something that can provide a counterpoint to the daily drudgery and soulless repetition of the rat race. Running road races is perfect medicine. It forces one to train, to stay healthy and disciplined -- to incorporate pain in one's life and not to avoid it. The pain of the race followed by the pleasure once it's finished puts all of one's woes in perspective.