Kelly Carter Scholarship 10K

The weather was really nice for the race. It was in the 70s and the humidity wasn't too high. The race also started an hour earlier then it did last year. The race was delayed while the clock was put into place. The 5K runners started first and five minutes later, the 10K runners started.

At the start of the race, I just wanted to establish a good pace for myself. Off of my right shoulder was a female runner. My goal was to keep her behind me and then put some distance between us. I heard her footsteps through the half mile. By the end of the first mile, I didn't hear them anymore. I didn't want to waste time looking around in case she was still right beside me.

Besides keeping the other women in the race behind me, I wanted to keep the guy ahead of me close. I was about 5 seconds behind him through the first two miles. Heading to mile 3, we had a hill to climb. Coming up to the hill and over the hill, the man in front of me was starting to get away. I ran through the third mile in 25 minutes. I worked on my pace and trying to keep my splits even.

A water station was just before the mile 4 mark. The man in front of me grabbed a cup of water and walked through the station. Once he finished drinking, he started running again. I knew then it was my chance to catch him. I worked the entire fifth mile running him down. It felt like I was running faster, but I wasn't sure. I worked on my form and was using my arms more. The gap between us was shrinking.

When I ran through the fifth mile, the volunteer called out 43 minutes. I was pleasantly shocked. I ran that last mile in 8 minutes or so. I was on pace to tie my PR or hopefully setting a new one. I continued to pull the guy in. He was about 15 feet ahead of me. I ran as fast as I could during the final stretch. I missed catching the guy by less then five seconds. If we had a little bit longer to run, I think I would have caught him. After the race, the guy said he could tell I was getting closer. Because of me, he ran a PR. I'm glad I helped him run his best race.

I finished the 10K in 54:16 and placed first in my age group. I missed tying my PR by 71 seconds. But I did improve on my time from the first 10K of the year by 28 seconds. I was told by some friends that I was the second woman to finish the race. I knew that couldn't have been right. I told them that I was behind two other ladies. They were a ways ahead of me. I just thought that they already finished. What happened was they got lost and ran extra miles. If those two ladies didn't get lost, I would have been the fourth woman overall and placed second in my age group. I felt bad for them, but the course was marked very well. I hope next time they will pay more attention to the markings on the course.