Hardest 10k EVER!

Today's run called for a short 4-miler but Striders was hosting a free 5k/10k as part of the Striders Winter Racing Circuit so I decided to do that instead. I wanted to get an idea of what the courses will look like. The actual circuit starts Feb 5th but they wanted to let people come out and get some practice runs in. I am not sure this was a good idea for me. Now that I know what the course is all about it is going to be really hard for me to want to go back and do this again!

I chose to do the 10k today because I knew I at least needed 4 miles. I had to use a stand-in dad because Tom was up enjoying life in Bear Lake. Luckily my brother-in-law wanted to get some miles under his shoes and said he would run with me. Mike runs a much quicker mile than I do but said he would stay with me. At first I felt bad that I was holding him back but then I was glad he stayed with me because it pushed me to run harder and better than if I had to run by myself. Without him I am sure I would have walked a ton of this course. This course was brutal. I have ran some of it before but never 6 miles on these hills. The first mile is uphill and then it had an awesome downhill that just makes you fly. I was enjoying myself until Mike said we had to come back up this same hill! I told him I would be losing time for sure on that uphill. It was so long and steep. But...I did so much better than I thought I would. I only stopped to walk once, and that was almost at the top. I walked for 1 minute and then ran the rest of the way in. My stats were shocking because I really thought the hills would kill my time!

Now, I just have to not think about having to do this again. I have been told the Winter Racing Circuit is seriously brutal, especially the 10-miler. If the 10k was like this then I am really scared for the 10-miler.

**STATS**
Distance: 6.31miles
Time: 1:00:41
Pace: 9:37/min/mile
Temperature: ? degrees
Time of day: 8:00 a.m