Well, it's over.

A somewhat disappointing morning for me, but I'm trying not to get too down on myself. 

Positive:  I got a PR!  And I beat Adam!  And someday when I race a 10k again and I'm not sick, I still have a completely beatable PR, so there's lots of room to improve. 

Negative:  I was crashing and burning.  I've written before about how important negative splits in races are mentally, and I missed that big time.  Arranged by fastest to slowest, for me it was miles 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 6. 

Lesson Learned:  Don't go out too fast!  Pace from step 1.  My mile 6 split was slower than my mile 1 split. 

Lesson Learned:  Wear a hat if it's raining or misting. 

Lesson Learned:  Capri pants are better for racing than long pants for me, but really, shorts are probably always okay in Texas.  I was overdressed for 40 and misting in capris, short sleeves, sleeveless, arm sleeves. 

Lesson Learned:  I need to get better at my new watch!  I tried to hit "lap" during the race, and I stopped the timer for almost a mile (haha, if only that had been my finish time, I would have been thrilled!).  Thank goodness I'm so paranoid that I also wore my old trusty watch -- it's gotten me through 100+ races and I see no reason to put all my faith in new technology until it's proven itself many times to me.

Race Review:  Hot Chocolate 10k in Addison.  Course was kind of sucky with a total of 4 fairly big hills (running up and down a bridge four separate times).  Chaos I feared at the mid-point (when 5kers stopped and we kept going) wasn't bad!  It was very well-managed.  After race was good, lots of hot chocolate in the finisher mugs, plus pizza and pancakes.  Took a long time to start age group awards.  Age group awards weren't anything too special (medal showing a mug of hot cocoa).  As a personal aside, I absolutely loved seeing my husband 4 times during the race (I was able to throw him my ear band once and my water bottle once).  And it was fun to see his coworkers as well who were a little spread out and were talking lots of trash to me (yelling that my husband could run faster than that, telling me to pick it up, telling me to move my butt), but it gave me some levity and made me smile and look forward to seeing him and them.  But hubby could see how badly things were going for me toward the end. 

So, a PR is a PR, right?  It was just so disappointing for me to realize I hadn't paced well.  It's disheartening to be slowing down so much toward the end, and getting passed...  No age group awards for this girlie! 

But I'm not experienced at racing 10ks (so pacing was bound to be difficult), it was my first race in a long time (2+ months), I'm sick, and I dressed poorly.  So it will be better next time. 

As I said above, if I'd done really great, it would be hard for me to do better at the next 10k, whenever that may be.  Instead, next time I race a 10k, another PR should be in the bag!  It'll be like back when I first started racing, where I could improve at any distance by many, many minutes! 

And the silver lining is really beating Adam.  I can't wait to tell him!!!  I need to figure out how.  I've been thinking of making this little book for him (I meant to do it for Xmas, but it was taking too long so I didn't include it with the other things I/we got him). 

As I said, we've been arguing about whether his 10k tri split counts for our running title competition.  I sent out a question we drafted together to a ton of runners and got their opinions.  I was thinking I'd write a legal opinion ruling on the controversy (likely concluding that a tri split does not count, which I think is the correct answer), and attach all the responses as exhibits.  I should work on it this weekend, because now I can include a footnote saying that the entire thing is moot because I hold the title either way!!