SLIM 10k to tackle HIV /AIDS in Kenya & Malawi

Was able to get the family out of the house and to South Park in Pittsburgh to run the SLIM 10K, I knew this was going to be a hilly race due to all the up and down driving we had to do to get to the park.

We got to the park on time and I let my family fast asleep in the car to pick up my race packet and use the restroom. Well, there was no bib or race number, we just picked up the timing chip since it was decided to give the race bag after the race and not before, I guess I do understand since quite a bit of people were bused in from University of Pittsburgh.

I changed into my running stuff, did the Dynamic Flexibility and then set off around 9:30am for my warm mile and stretches, my mp3 dies about .4mile and I ran back to the car hoping I had a back up, luckily I found one in my bag so went back out to finish my warm up. I had my warm up timed perfectly to the start time but the start was then delayed for another 15 mins, oh what to do bounce in place, more stretched, check music, fast dashes then finally we were off. Even thou the temperature was about 35F which would have been perfect for running the wind was brutal and made it much colder.

Oh, I set the virtual partner on the Garmin (I have the 301) to run at a 9:10 pace with the hope of finishing in under 1 hour, this is way off my 10k goal pace of 8:36, but the intention is to stay with or ahead of my partner.

Mile 1; had a slight incline but it wasn't too bad, since this were a bunch of college kids, they were quite fast. 9:13 pace was concern did I go out too fast, don't want to crash but felt fine, no pain so kept running by feel
9:13 HR 162bpm

Mile 2 started out nice and flat but ended up with an uphill, was breathless but no pain, was extremely shock at my pace. Funny enough when I was huffing up the hill, Catch me am falling by Pretty Poison was playing om my mp3, luckily I stayed upright.
8:49 HR 166bpm never ran below 9 before was still feeling fine so continue on

Between miles 2 and 3, the 5k runners meet up with us and things got kind of crowdy for a while, then we can to a fork in the road and all the 10k runners were hoping/praying we were going right and not left, because on the left you can see the hill, it just went straight up, but the wonderfull volunteer yelled 10K to the left and we also groaned.
8:43 HR 163bpm maybe I should have conserve some energy but still feeling fine.

Mile 4 was painful even my Garmin complained none stop, initially I though my HR was too high or pace too slow but my Garmin was loosing signal and by the time I got to the top I had no signal, so running by feel and blindly. The best part was that even though the uphill was hard once I was done my legs recovered immediately and I was able to keep running the flat fast.

About mile 5 was the downhill, there was no mile marker and Garmin was off, controlling the down hill to prevent free falling and the wonderful wind was nicely pushing back. This was the last of the rolling hills and it was all flat from now on since this was the section I did my warmup mile on.

Came into the home stretch and saw 50:44 on the timer, do not have the official result, if that is correct that will mean I ran faster (8:09) than my 10K pace and the first time I ever ran below a 9 min pace and a PR since my last 10K was over 61:06. Garmin also gave a time of 50:44 for 5.41 miles which is a 9:23 pace average HR of 165bpm..

I felt fine after the race nothing really hurt but I got extremely cold right after the race and there was no liquid right at the finish, you had to go back up to the pavilion to get it but this involve waiting in line for about 10 mins, and then no cups, they had bread plus fruit just skipped the whole thing and just picked up my goody bag which had tee shirt and 1 power bar.

The race itself was fine but the start and finish needs some work, will really have to do some serious hill training before another race in Pittsburgh just about every where have rolling hills, I was considering the Spirit of Pittsburgh HM in October.

Official Result:

Overall  Age group(35-44)
49/102    5/9        Elizabeth S 50:44    8:11