Today was the big day for the Nike+ 10k. I had originally planned on running it this morning, but having imbibed a little too much last night, I wasn't really feeling my best when I woke up. As a matter of fact, I felt kind of "off" the entire day. I'm not really sure what it was, but I actually considered bailing on the race.

We went to my parent's house this afternoon for some Labor Day festivities meaning I didn't get out for my run until about 9pm. And of course I made the brilliant race day decision to have about 20 hot wings for dinner!

Why yes, that IS a vat of hot grease burning a hole in my stomach! So kind of you to notice.

So after putting it off for about as long as I possibly could, I headed out the door, did a quick warm-up jog and started my race.

My goal was 50 minutes, so I knew I'd have to hit 5:00 per kilometer. I went out pretty fast and felt alright, but right around 2.5 miles I hit a big hill and the pace slowed to about 5:30 per km. Things stayed right around there for pretty much the rest of the race, or until the last mile or so. I was able to pick things up at the end for an official time of 52:18. (No, I still haven't calibrated my Nike+)

When I got home and mapped out my route on mapmyrun.com, it came out to about 6.8 miles, which comes out to a 7:40 pace which would've been good for a 47:43 10k! Either way, I'm happy with my result, and really just happy that I finished it!

We're 10 days away from the Nike+ Human Race and I'm starting to think about my goals for the race. This is my first 10k, and even though I'll only be racing against the clock, it's nice to have something to shoot for.

First things first, sometime in the next 10 days I need to calibrate my Nike+, otherwise I'll have no hope of reaching my goal. In addition, I have to plot out my course. There are a lot of hills around here, and while I know I won't be able to avoid them entirely, I'd like to try and find something that's not all uphill (both ways...in the snow...with no shoes!!).

Ever since switching to Genny Light (which I'm now calling Genny "Light"-ning In A Can), my training runs have sped up. The last two, around 5 & 6 miles each, were run at around an 8:10/mile pace. I was pushing the pace during them, but I wasn't totally dead at the end so I think I can do better in "race" conditions. So my goal for the 10k is 50:00 or under, which works out to an 8:02/mile pace.

I'll admit, one reason I'm shooting for 50 minutes is 50 is a nice round number to hit, but the real truth is that I noticed on Viper's Booze Hounds Inc blog that 50 minutes was his 10k goal a few weeks back and I want to beat him! Sure, he drinks better beer than I do, but maybe, just maybe, I could beat him in a race to the beer store!