Everything went well today; I finished the 10K in 50:21 or 50:22 (still waiting for the official results). Negative splits were blown to the wind in the first mile since everyone else started out so quickly. I ran the first two miles at a 7:40 pace, then the third mile around 8:40 because it was uphill, then the fourth and fifth miles were 8:20ish, then the last mile was another 7:40. And most of the race hurt, especially the last mile. It was stupid of me to think I could run the race in 50 minutes with little training at that pace.

After the race I took advantage of the complimentary massage and free food, then hightailed it out to the bike shop to meet some teammates for a bike ride. We rode for about 2.5 hours out in the Leeds area (I saw some donkeys! haha).

Back at the shop I opted not to do the lactate threshold testing considering that I had lactate thresholded all day. I am so sore. However I did get a new Polar CS200 HRM for my bike and some free coffee thanks to our sponsor. I like spending Saturday afternoons in the shop, cleaning my bike, getting training tips and drooling over pretty new bikes.

I am stubborn and it takes suffering to get me to change my mind about something. I suffered today. And after talking to my team's bike coach, I decided not to run competitively this winter because it is disadvantageous to my bike training for next year's race season. He did give me the ok to run 5 miles at a comfortable pace for cross-training. This decision has made me feel relieved, and considering that I have invested a lot into cycling, I want it to be my primary focus.

Addendum: Preliminary results are in - out of about 1600 runners, I finished in the top 24th percentile overall and the top 8th percentile in my age group. Not bad for someone who started running again two months prior to the race, but not surprising for someone who is used to suffering (see: bad relationships, workaholism, cycling with crazy men).