Newport 10,000 Race Report

Newport 10,000
May 8, 2010

Newport 10,000 Details
A new PR!

Official Stats
6.2 miles
42:20
6:49 average pace

116/1200 Overall
17/344 Gender
3rd Age Group

Weather: 60 degrees and beautiful at start. Rain started with a mile to go.
In a word: Awesome :)

Garmin Stats
6.4 miles
42:18
6:36 average pace

Race Recap
Newport 10,00 is an amazing race because so many elite runners participate. It is an honor just to run with them. It was actually mentioned in the May issue of runners world as a great race to run. It was very organized and they had great prizes, food, and water stops.

I almost didn't run this race, because there was a local race in my hometown on the same day, but I am so glad I did. I never liked running 10ks. I just wasn't very good at that medium distance. They seemed too long to go fast but too short to go slow! I never knew how to race this distance so I just ran as fast as I could until I got tired and then just kept going the best I could until the finish. Well, this may work fine for 5ks because by the time you get tired the race is halfway over, but this method never works well on anything longer than a 5k. I decided to pace myself for a 6:45 race and it worked.

Garmin Splits:
Mile 1~ 6:35
Mile 2~ 6:44
Mile 3~ 6:46
Mile 4~ 6:33
Mile 5~ 6:54
Mile 6~ 6:15
6.2 (.4?)~ 6:10 (pace)

The course was super flat and fast. Unfortunately, there were apparently some course length issues. My watch said I ran 6.4 miles instead of 6.2. There were a lot of turns on the course and I thought maybe I just took some really wide turns, but my Dad seemed to think the problem was with the satellites. Of course, I want to believe that I did run the 6.4 because that would mean my average pace really was a 6:39. Apparently the course has a history of problems such as this one.

This blog explains the course issues in more detail.

Regardless of the length issues...I still achieved a new 10k PR by over a minute!

Same race last year:
43:46
7:02 pace

Previous 10k PR race:
Cherry Blossom 2009
43:25
6:59 pace

The team I run for also came in first place!
For team races I usually run in the team jersey, but when I first joined, they only had extra smalls left. I tried it on and it fit!
Unfortunately, when I run, the shirt rides up and totally exposes my stomach, so I haven't been wearing it. When we got to the race, our team captain asked me where my shirt was. I explained the problem and he told me he had a bag full of shirts. I gladly accepted a larger shirt but explained I was unable to wear it in the race because I had pink shorts on:

He looked at me like I was crazy but didn't press the issue :) For our next race in 2 weeks I will have to plan my outfit a bit better.
Here are some more pics:

The rain came just in time to cool off the runners.

After the awards ceremony we went to Starbucks, of course!

Dad's Stats
47:21
7:37 pace

The loot: