Race Against Hate 10K Recap

A few weeks ago, my sister convinced me to sign up for the Race Against Hate 10K while I was home visiting the family.  If you haven't heard the (tragic but inspiring) story behind the race, you should check it out.  I was a little hesitant at first, since this would involve returning to the scene of my first ever 10K, which I ran two years ago.  But when I found out my mom and S (my boyfriend, who was flying out to Chicago to help me drive back to Boston with Klaus) were both on board for the 5K, I couldn't hold out anymore.  Since my training plan has a long run and a medium-distance pace run each weekend, I opted for the 10K.

A brief recap of the 2010 race: it did not go well.    At that point I had run one 5K (after which I lost my breakfast on the pavement in Copley Square), and had vague ideas about eventually racing longer distances (I believe the words "Disney Princess Half" had come up a few times), but basically had no idea what I was doing.  My mom and I ran the 10K while my sister ran the 5K.  It was a warm, muggy day and I struggled through almost the entire race, eventually finishing in 1:16:02 for a 12:14 average pace.  This also put me more than six minutes behind my mother, which she doesn't like to let me forget.

Looking a little nervous pre-race

Pretty solid race photography from Dad!

Post-race, looking like I'm about to hurl.  Wouldn't be the first time ...

This year's race went much, much better.

Pre-race -- looking good!

Pre-race -- looking weird ...

Given Sunday's 9 miler and the very hot, very humid weather on race day, my goal was to come in right around 10 minute miles, and that's just what I did, finishing with an official time of 1:02:34 for a 10:05 average pace.  But the splits show that I faded pretty hard (even if you discount a slightly wonky first mile split):

The course was pretty, going through part of Northwestern's campus and along the lakefront, but a little bit brutal when we ran the same mile-long segment of Sheridan Rd three times!  Also, the mile markers were all over the place, which was a little confusing -- based my watch, mile 2 was very long and mile 4 was very short.  Going into the race I was a little grumpy about the fact that I was running twice as far as anyone else in our little group, but it was totally worth it when I saw Katie and S cheering for me from the sidewalk on the home stretch.

It ended up being a good day for everyone!  Mom ran a solid race, Katie ran her first sub-30 min 5K, and S ran under 21 minutes, good for third in his age group!

Post-race, with banana peels