On March 16, 2019 I raced and set a 10K PR at the St. Patrick’s Day Road Race in Holyoke, MA. It was the first time I have run this event which has about 5,000 participants.
I’ve taken a bit of a racing break so there have not been any results posts for quite a while. However I have lost some more weight and kept a consistent training plan of about 30 miles a week. Therefore going in, I really didn’t know what kind of race shape I was in. But I figured it was probably better than ever before.
Before the race I had checked the elevation map, which shows a net uphill from mile 1.2 to mile 3.7!
All I can say is this is a true map. My first mile was flat and felt fine at about a 5:45. But by mile 3 or so I was about ready to give up and admit that I really didn’t know how to run anymore and shouldn’t have been sprinting up hills at 6:15 miles.
The downhill at mile 3.7 let me catch my breath back – and I ran mile 5 which is pretty much all downhill in 5:15.
Finally, at about mile 5.2 there’s a final little hill that tries to kill you. It pretty much did but I was able to push the final mile to the finish. I did get passed a few times in the last stretch being out of energy but finished in 37:13 (6 minute miles), which is a PR by far in the 10k.
