My first race in Indy felt pretty good! My thoughts are almost the same as finishing the 5K in February, like 'hmm I kind of am underestimating my abilities'. But this strategy definitely leaves me less chances for disappointment - so ha! Anyways, the race had an 8 am start, 30 minutes after the half and full marathon had taken off. We ended up running into a lot of Scott's teammates, or partners of teammates that were already on the course and positioned ourselves near the front of the crowd. I was definitely having the 'oh whoops shouldn't be this close' thought when I saw the very competitive runners toe the line. Maybe I need to just look a little more competitive then I'll try to blend in. I mean - I was wearing a cotton t-shirt, I wasn't fooling anyone. Anyways, I made sure I was close enough to the edge so that there was ample passing room for people.
As per usual the beginning of a race is very exciting and I definitely was going at like, a 7:30 pace for a hot second before my senses (and legs) settled to an 8:40 ish pace. I was worried to hold it here, thinking I would wear myself out and barely finish the race, but after passing the first and second mile markers with ~8:45 times and feeling great I put more pressure on myself to keep it at or below that pace. The course was gentle with only a few hills; I actually felt pretty good powering up them and steadily descending them that they barely registered. After the third mile I felt really solid at my pace, and started passing a few people here and there until I was mostly alone. By the time I'd passed the fourth mile marker I was really determined to push it as much as I could (which wasn't a ton) and maybe got closer to a 8:30 pace. With the finish line in sight it was easy to really kick it, and I crossed it in 43:00, with Scott yelling from the sidelines.
My watch read the course a tad longer than marked, but my overall pace was 8:40. I am really happy to continue this trend of sub-9:00 miles. There is something about 9:00 miles that makes me feel like more of an average jogger strolling around so it is nice to see a bit of improvement. I am pretty sure I want to sign up for a half-marathon in the fall and properly train for it, and probably do more 8K's and 10K's leading up to it. I have to say - I really liked the 8K distance. It had kind of a nice act 1, act 2, act 3 feel to it that made me really asses my physical effort during a race and the best way to balance it.
After I finished I got to hear about Scott's race which he ran in an impressive 31:34. We then hung around to cheer the winner of the marathon (again, another PBT teammate, they definitely had a good showing at this race) to his victory for the third year straight.
Today my leg's feel totally fine if only a tad fatigued, but no soreness or blisters. First race in my new shoes as well, and they feel just like last year's model which is exactly what I wanted. So for the week it was:
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 4.03 miles, 8:50 pace
Wednesday: 4.01 miles, 9:13 pace
Thursday: 4.06 miles, 9:27 pace
Friday: Off
Saturday: 5.02 miles, 8:40 pace
Sunday: Off
Total miles run: 17.1
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