Tucson, Arizona. There was absolutely no sun. It was rainy and sort of cold. I ran the 10K to have a race at faster than marathon pace vs a 5K all out, which wouldn’t give me the benefit I was looking for. Fiona, Mom, and Tony ran the 5K. I saw our friends before the start, Holly and Brooke. I woke up at 6am for the 8am start and had a medium redbull and a quarter of a Crumble Cookie. 5min before Go, I had a 100 Caffiene Precision Hydration gel. I had my headphones and music pumping, WattieInk tri shorts, Sam Long Zoot singlet, and my first run in Hoka Carbon X3.

My goal was two part: run faster than 7:03/mile which would give me a 3:05 Mesa marathon in 3 weeks, and run faster than the Pecan Run 10K from November 2023 in 43:30 at 7:00/mile. That day was 64F and sunny on mostly dirt pack with 146 HR/avg at 2,700′ and 178 cadence. I went out hard and suffered on the back end with 7:15’s over the back half.

I warmed up on this day for .75mile, which I do believe is needed now for especially these shorter runs but will do so for Mesa. I also didn’t wear a waterbelt because it’s so short but also won’t be for Mesa. M2 along the road was most of this,

It was raining and I started a bit back. I didn’t see Ben Hoffman, who came in 3rd! At the gun it was a bit of diving around folks up front. Then it was dodging a bunch of water holes which were soon disregarded because, really? The first mile felt easy. 6:40 on 130bpm. I knew I was going too fast but stuck with it since it didn’t feel too hard, probably from the cold and rain. I stuck with it and plugged away with sunnies now on visor since fog started. 6:55 on 146. M3 6:57 on 147 and still on pace… HR a bit higher than my descenting mile repeats of 6:30s and 142HR. Stick with it. M4, shoelace comes undone, no, need to fix. Stop. No one behind. Do this fast with cold fingers. Run fast at 6:20-6:30 to keep Sub7 and go 6:58 on 146 with 10s+ stoppage. OK, getting hard now, keep it up. M5 6:45 on 146. Lets go, 8:30 to go. M6 6:53 on 152, finish strong to the family. Final stretch and going for it at 6:22 on 149.

Finish in 43:07 at 6:56/mile getting 5/16 A/G, 31/207 Overall. Because I ran long, fastest 10K was 42:32 at 6:51/mile which is 3hr marathon pace.

I am very happy with my effort. This was the fastest I have gone for 10K since I ran a 1:29 half in March, 2020… nearly 4 years ago. I did run 42:21 inside Tucson marathon 2021 but not including since large net downhill. Also ran 3X faster inside on Zwift, treadmill. I was really fit in that half race but also up to 6 pounds now, was lighter as well.

I was a bit bloated for the run today but been trying to cut down on weight over the last several weeks hitting my lowest weight of 182.2 in 5 months.

Based off of the Jack Daniles VDOT calculator, this run puts me in 3:16marathon shape which is 5min faster than I ran the Tucson Marathon in December; a month ago. I need a 3:05 with included cushion to Boston Qualify. I can expect 5min from the course but dont know what’s possible. Pacing will be key, and more weight loss. Who knows. I certainly want it.

I have also decided to pursue the CPA licensing. I started the day after Christmas and take FAR in May. It’s going to be a big and great year. I am studying 15+ hours per week, training 7-10hrs and working on multiple 2024 goals. I have also reduced mileage from 50+ to 40+ and reduced long runs to 13-14miles to focus on quality work. I gotta run Boston with Fiona!

Stay Tuned. 20 days to go.