Running the 10 mile Pear Blossom race on Saturday
 

It's a race with a long history in Southern Oregon (Medford) and this will be my first time running it even though I grew up near that area. I've been training at about an 8min/mile pace and should be able to easily hold that throughout the race. I've never raced further than 6 miles and so I'm not at all sure how to pace this thing. I'm afraid if I drop too much below 8min/mile in the beginning I may have nothing left at the end. In short, I have little idea what kind of pace I can hold for 10 miles if I try and go fast.

So, my plan is to start at 8 min/mile and build slightly with each mile. For those of you who have raced this distance and longer is this a sound plan? I don't want to suffer from mile one and I'm looking for a negative split on the second half of this thing. Oh and by the way, I looked at last year's results to see where I'd finish in my age group if I just ran the comfortable 1 hour 20 minute pace I've trained at. The aswer? Dead last.

Sounds good, but it's awfully hard to run just a bit faster with each mile, due to variances in terrain, wind, etc. If I were you, I'd run 8 min miles for the first half, and then punch the gas. Even if you start to crash, you've only got a couple of miles to go.

That sounds wise. I think I'll give that a try.

Don't ask me.

At my last half, I intended to go out in 7:15s and ended up doing 6:10s only to fall prey to injury.

My plans never work out, so don't ask me what to do.

However, from lots of good intentions, I notice the following. Keep the early miles with easy effort and gradually increase perceived effort as measured by your heart rate monitor. Speed is not as important as actual effort in a race. Although I frequently don't wear a monitor, I often will during a race to monitor my effort.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. They did a study of recreational runners and found in the 10K that most will do better by going out faster and holding on as long as one can, than by trying to negative split.

I've tried that in a few races and did pretty well. But SteelBlue wants to negative split, which is why I gave the advice I did.

Just looked at the results again and realized that I only saw one page. So a 1:20 would have put a runner at 42nd out of 76 in my age group. That I can live with, and it makes a lot more sense. I would have hated to be dead last in my age group. Something humiliating about that.

I don't have too much experience with long distance races, but I think it's better to push yourself a little more at the beginning. You'll have some adrenaline going to give you an extra push.

If you start out too conservatively, and then realize you've got extra gas in the tank in the last few miles, it's too late to make up the time.

That's the great thing about running. There's always someone slower than you. The other great thing is that there's also always someone faster too.

Alright, you guys have convinced me that it's probably best to just go out fast and try and hang on. I just have to make sure not to go out too fast. I have a tendency to start a race guns a blazin' and then I suffer a lot more than I had planned. It's a scary feeling to think you went out at about a 7:30 and then to hit your iPod button and hear that little lady tell you that your running a 6:45. She might as well be followed by Axl Rose's voice screaming "you're gonna die".