Bentonville Race Series: Irish 10K

In late 2016, I signed up to run the Bentonville Half Marathon and the training program. Joining the program is fun because membership offers(among many other things) an organized group run every Saturday, and free admission into two other races in the bentonville race series: the Valentine 8K, and the Irish 10K. 

Then we got little premie Wren, and I was delirious with exhaustion and my eyes constantly burned from lack of sleep.  I put running on hold and deferred my training membership and race registration to a future year.  

They sent me an email in December 2017 reminding me that a spot in the training group was reserved for me and 2018 was my year to run the bentonville half! No turning back now! I started training out pretty rough, as starting over (and over and over again) is always a challenge. I stuck it out, and had a lofty goal of 10:30-11min pace for the half. My friend, Laura, is expecting a baby and needed to slow her regular pace down a bit so we have been doing some Saturday group runs together and it’s been great!

This was such a good race for me! Temp was perfect for running (49-50*). My time goal was to stay under 10:30 pace, which would be my fastest 10K pace and get me a new PR. I had to use the restroom right before the race started, so I hurried outside to the starting line only a minute before the gun went off. I searched but never found my friend Laura as I wiggled through the crowd, and figured she had started in the pack at front end of the chute and was way ahead of me. So I picked up my pace a bit to try to catch up and find her. Between 2 and 3 miles, I took off my sweatshirt, looked at my time and realized I was going pretty fast. Way too fast to sustain for 3 more miles! But I realized that if I kept it under a 10 minute mile, I could come in at under an hour! I was getting pretty tired so I ate a few gummy gu chomps and sipped some Gatorade and struggled through a half mile of uphill.  Still hoping to catch up and find Laura, I found some new strength the last mile and a half and maintained the pace I’d started the race with. 

57:50! Check out the victory look on my face in the finish line pics from the race website! Haha! Taking 6+ minutes off a PR is a pretty big deal, but just coming I under an hour was really a huge deal for me. I’ve always been a really slow “turtle” runner, so running 6.2 miles at a 9.20 pace really delights me and makes me wonder what I’d be capable of if I had time or energy to train more than squeezing in a couple short runs whenever I can. I’m still not sure a 10 minute pace is sustainable for 13.1 miles, but I’m going to try! Doing Fartlek and Progression speed training runs has helped and I think running those hills on Tiger Blvd with Kasey has definitely made me stronger.