Smarter, stronger AND faster

Posted April 2, 2011 at 3:38 pm | Tags: injuries, Monument Avenue 10k, races, Richmond | 26997 Comments »http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runningbecauseican.com%2Fsmarter-stronger-and-faster%2FSmarter%2C+stronger+AND+faster2011-04-02+19%3A38%3A48David+H.http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runningbecauseican.com%2F%3Fp%3D2699

Coming back from my ITB injury, my plan was simply this: to come back smarter and stronger. If that meant faster, then all the better. Today those “comeback” plans to came together perfectly and the results were so surprising.

I ran 48:08 in the Monument Avenue 10k in Richmond today, 3 seconds faster than my PR two years ago, which was the last time I raced this distance. Even better is that this PR came with a negative split. I ran 24:06 in the first half and 24:02 in the second half. All week long I have said that I’d see how things were going at the halfway point before “going for it.” Truth be told, I “went for it” the whole race.

After I hit the first mile under 8 minutes and the second mile in 7:35, there was no backing down. I felt like I struggled a bit in the middle miles, but I was still pulling in miles under 8 minutes.

As I neared the last minute, I could feel the emotions hit me as I thought about my grandfather a lot in the final mile, just knowing he probably would have enjoyed being in the crowd at the finish line.

I love it when I have a race that I can walk away from with no regrets. I may have let a few seconds slip away in certain parts of the course, but this was my race today. It was so unexpected, but so awesome. Nearly 6 hours later I still can’t find the right words to explain it.

I’ve talked before about how much I don’t like the 10k distance — too long if you start too slow, too short if you screw up going out too fast — but as I was racing today I realized how important running 6.2 miles very hard is. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be tackling this distance again very soon.