Race Day The Vibram Way

Monday Morning Edit: Race times have been posted. Official chip time was 50:01, I finished 16th in my age group. How exciting! 

I am officially done the Nike study. I had a really great time at the UBC Fall Classic today. I ran into Maha, the study director a couple of times. She wrote my name on her hand and asked me my goal time. I said 52 minutes but I thought it would be highly unlikely that I actually run that fast. I honestly felt like 52 was a really, really ambitious. I've never gone under 55 in a 10k and my avrg 10k time is 56:02. So I thought shaving 4 minutes off on a 10k would be hard. Walking out to the start line I was so nervous I actually thought I was going to barf, my heart was racing. I always get like that at the start line. I left my friend and went closer to the start line. I have figured out that I run much faster alone, racing 10k alone is easy..not sure if I'd run a full alone.

This was the first time that I didn't talk to anyone/strangers during the run. There was a guy on the course that I wanted to talk to cause quite frankly he was pissing me off. Cause he kept passing me. Like frequently. And he was wearing DENIM cut offs. Denim cuts offs and a tee-shirt, in -4 weather. He was run walking but in very short intervals. I've never seen anything like it. I would catch up to him and he'd stop and walk, then I'd see him passing me like 2 minutes later, as soon as I passed him he'd stop and walk again. It was bizzarro. I want to know what the heck he was doing.

I wore the Vibrams 5 fingers with socks for the first time today. It added a bit of warmth but I have to say that by about 3k into the race my feet were numb and really cold, I was actually concerned. But once I hit the hills it got much better and my feet started to warm up. When feeling returned to my toes the run was much more comfortable! I also have to say that the socks and vibrams probably made me look pretty awesome, I had some pretty sweet fashion going today and I bet it made me run faster. :)-

The interesting thing that happened again today, that has been happening since I started running in the vibrams is I couldn't feel/figure out what pace I was running. Its like my output doesn't match my effort. I used to have to push it soo hard, until I was uncomfortable to run like a 5:30 km and now with what I perceive as way less effort I'm easily running a 5:00 km.

I felt like I was running super slow so I got Runmeter to chime in and I was currently running under 5min/km with average under 5min/km. For the record, that's really fast for me, like crazy fast. Yet, I felt like I wasn't moving, I didn't even feel like I was giving it 80%. I mentally and physically felt like I could run so much harder/faster but my legs just wouldn't do it. It's strange. I didn't feel uncomfortable like I used to when I'd push it in the past. Maybe I need to spend more time on the track and work until I'm uncomfortable to have a gauge for racing? I don't know. I didn't do a lot of the track workouts like I was supposed to, in fact I think I did 4 of the 14 (only 1 was actually on a track, the other 3 were treadmill). Maybe it would have helped. I feel like I could have ran it so much faster but something was holding me back. Saying that, I also want to say that I am ecstatic with my time, I'm very proud of it. I just think it could have been faster. I really need to find a track group that can run when I can run. I know of a few groups that I'd love to train with but I work too late.

I crossed under the finish line at 50:19. Maha took a photo with her iphone, I'll upload it when she sends me it. I yelled out "F**k Yeah" as I crossed cause I was so excited. I didn't think it was loud but she heard me so it must have been. Like I said, I'm proud of my time. Meeting my goals and exceeding them is great motivation to keep going.

My Run Meter app says:

Run time: 50:23
Distance: 10.12km
Avrg Pace: 4:59/km
Fastest Pace: 4:27/km
Ascent: 466 Meters
Decent: 502 Meters