Usually I would be really looking forward to it. It's forecast to be a beautiful morning and it's a nice gently rolling course around the Koka Booth amphitheatre in Cary, NC. http://www.townofcary.org/Departments/Parks__Recreation___Cultural_Resources/Sports/Sports_Events_and_Tournaments/Cary_Road_Race.htm
I feel a little "un prepared" for this one for some reason. In general my running has been down a little (I wish I could say the same for my weight!) since my calf injury back in December, so I'm not sure what sort of performance to expect. It's just an early season warm-up - certainly not an "A" race - but never-the-less I hate the thought of putting in anything other than a good effort. I asked The Puppeteer whether I should haved a target time or pace in mind and she basically said that I should "run by feel" and that 8:30 to 8:45 pace should be fine.
As a double check, I checked Greg McMillan's well known running site at http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/ where you can use a calculator to plug in previous times at various distances and get an estimate of what time you should be taking to run other distances (assuming that you're doing the right training). For "fun" I plugged in my half marathon time from last November (1:57:37) and it spat out a 10K time of 52:51 (8:30 pace). OK, so at the faster end of what The Puppeteer estimated, but roughly aligned. I then plugged in my 5K time for last years Dios de los Muertos race (22:49) and it spat out a 10K estimate of 47:26 (7:37 pace).... Yikes! There's no way I will be able to get anywhere near that! I cut myself some slack for not having been able to run hard over the winter, but really Greg McMillan.... you have to make me feel that inadequate! :-)
The bottom line, of course, is that it's early season and I will go out and use it as a rough guide for where I am at the moment and, hopefully, as a springboard for greater things. I need to get focused before Saturday though!
Unfortunately, to add to my joy, I now have two more nagging annoyances to deal with (no, not The Snitch and Compass!). I was working in our corporate offices in NJ earlier this week and noticed an annoying "twinge" in my lower back. I know that it wasn't caused by any particular workout - perhaps those ridiculously tiny airline seats on regional jets? On top of that, I was walking to cool down after a short run earlier today and an idiot in a truck came barreling towards me while not paying attention and talking on the phone. I saw him coming and hopped-up on to the grass verge, only to turn my left ankle. Damn, damn, damn! As I sit here typing this I can still feel it, but hopefully a session on the bike trainer tonight and a good nights rest will stretch it out and have it feeling better in the morning - we'll see!
On the plus side of all of this..... you'll all be able to have a good laugh when I post my race report! :-)
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