3.6.16: Hawaii Pacific Health Women's 10K. PR!!!

On today's run, my 2nd race of the year, I was really hoping to beat my person best 10K time that I had set in 2013 in Wahiawa.  I have been training and running strong and eating clean and hit my goal weight this week. I had a feeling that I could do it but a fall this week, and being super busy made me just a little unsure of whether I should go for it to not.

When the gun went off I went out hard and kept to my race plan which was to run on the edge and stay under a 9 minute mile.  I was up front and feeling good, I knew it was going to be a good race.  I ran up the first Diamond Head hill strong and flew down the hill.  Going up the next incline and down the 2nd incline I tried to pick up more pace.  The hard 2nd half was just around the corner and I needed to make sure I had a little extra space.

At the 5K mark my watch told me that I had run a 26 minute first half and I knew that if I ran just as strong I would make my time.  I hadn't been running negative splits the last few races so I knew I had to be smart and push hard but not so hard that I crashed and burned.  And I still had Kahala Ave and Diamond Head to run.  I could see some of the top runners ahead of me and I worked hard to catch them.

My ascend to Diamond Head was not easy but I repeated my mantras and chided myself to stay focused and mentally engaged.  In the past my mind was the missing link so keeping my head in the game has been something I have been working on.  I tend to fade and day dream but now that I am aware of that my running has improved.  At the top of Diamond Head I looked at my watch and knew that there could be no mistakes. I needed to run my hardest fastest 2 miles of my life and I needed to sustain. I decided what the heck and put it into high gear.  I ended up running mile 5 at an 8:01 and as I headed into Kapiolani Park I decided to leave it all out on the course.  I willed myself to run hard and I looked ahead and picked targets to take down.  I reminded myself to relax and just run and that helped.  With about .25 miles left I put it into full gear and passed a woman I had been chasing the whole race.  She told me to go get it and I told her to push but I guess she had nothing left.  I told myself not to let anyone catch me and I picked off another runner coming into the shoot.  As I crossed the finish line I was a little bummed that I didn't catch 51 minutes but was happy to see that I hit 52:36 which was 20 seconds faster than all my 10ks and 1 minute faster than any 10K I completed on this tough course.  I was elated!!!!!

And so, another PR has been established and another race in the books.  I will continue to push boundaries and work hard on and off the course.  There are still many goals that I want to accomplish and I am so happy that I can continue to improve in my old age.  :)