The first race I ran post-Dagny was the Zena Road Run in 2012 - she was 4 months old and I had just really started running again. My goal for that race was to run under 9-minute miles for the 6-miler. I ended up running 8:45's and was pretty happy with it. The course was a hard one with lots of really long and relatively steep hills.
One year later and I got the chance to run the same race again and really gauge where I'm at with a year's worth of training under my belt. Zena Road Run 2013 was today and I did the 6-miler again. My goal this year was to do around 7:30-minute miles. I remembered thinking that the course was hard last year and I remembered the hills being hard, but I have been training pretty hard and felt good going into the race. I've even run extra hill intervals just to get ready for these ones. But it's amazing how hard this course is. My pace ranged from 6:50's to 8:30's depending on where I was on the course. I think that I was secretly hoping for an even faster race, but once I was actually out there I quickly realized that it wasn't realistic - not on this course. I finished feeling pretty strong in 45:52 at 7:39-minute mile pace.
I'm feeling good about the hard work I've put in over the last year. This is the type of course that can only be compared to itself. I can't look at it and compare it to any other 10k race because it's just so unlike any other course I'll race. Even the top guys finishing the 15k race had looks of near defeat after finishing on the same last few miles that I did. If they're saying it's a tough course, I feel better about having the same feeling. I'll continue to run this race and only compare it to my other performances on this course. But it is a great feeling to have shaved more than a minute per mile off of my time from last year. Hard work does pay off.
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