It is not an exaggeration to say that I ran one of the best races that I’ve ever run yesterday.  The weather was optimal for running.   I ran a smart race.   I had beautiful pretty splits.   I felt good.   Great running time and a nice finish.   What more could a girl ask for on a Sunday race day?

The funny thing is that this was another race that I went into without an actual plan.   Nope.   Nada.   Clueless.    Like any tutu runner, I was more concerned with coordinating my outfit which I do believe that I did so perfectly.

  Mission accomplished!

When walking and getting into the corrals with my MRTT Mama’s, I was saying that I was just going to run the Bronx 10 Miler as a training run.   I was just going to run it at a solid 10:30 pace like many of my training runs.

Gun goes off and we are off.   I start off with my friend Kim.   I tell her just go ahead as I don’t want to affect her race as I’m going to be going slow.    She goes her way, I go mine.   Then a funny thing happens as I’m trying to maintain my 10:30 pace, I realize that I’m going too fast.    I feel good.   I know from experience though that starting out too fast can be a real problem, so I change my mindset to running a smart race.

Seize the Day mentality.

I still have not thought on overall time, but I figure I will try to just keep my splits good.   I did runt them faster than I was trying, but I was feeling good and felt like I could maintain the pace.    I figured that it was only 10 miles and I could just keep going.

It seemed to work for me.  I did a couple things to distract me from the actual running during the race.   First, I listen to those around me while running.    I listen to the sounds of the feet, conversations, and just pay attention to where I’m actually running.   Kind of taking in the sites.   One of the other things that I did was take the time to say Thank You to every Police Officer that I ran by.    Just a simple, “thanks officer.”    They probably were like who is this crazy lady in red, but I figured they deserved it.

Then I get to the finish line which this year is on a downhill as they changed the course a little.   I’m feeling a stitch in my side, but I push it hard at the end.   Why not?   I can always breathe after I cross the finish line.

So my non race strategy really paid off!    I think that I am more happy with my splits than my actual finish time.

Now hopefully, I will be as happy with this run this morning as I get ready to head out for my 15 miles today.   At least I am running a slow pace!

Let the training continue.

NYCM marathon bound.