Race Report: CorNfield CorNfield 10k

Alyssa and I pre-race...beautiful day and great atmosphere!

On June 28, I competed in the first annual CorNfield CorNfield 10k in Papillion, which is part of the BRIN Running Series.  As Anders had his surgery on Wednesday, I once again did not run for the three days prior to this past Saturday's  event.  I tried my best to get some quality work in at the beginning of the week, but it's still a little tough trying to race with that much rest beforehand.

I checked the forecast the night before, and saw that there was once again a good possibility that it would rain during the race.  (Would this be the third time I've raced in rain this year??)  Philip told me that as long as the rain held off, he wanted to come cheer with the boys.  Luckily, when I woke up and checked again, it looked like it was going to stay clear!

We left our house at 5:30am and headed to Lincoln to pick up Alyssa...it was a full load with two kiddos and three adults!  This would be Alyssa's first time racing a 10k and her first race after qualifying for Boston in her spring marathon.  Since this was an inaugural event, neither of us knew what to expect from the race.

We got there over an hour before the race was slated to start, so had plenty of time to catch up with our Women Run Nebraska teammates and warm up.  Six of our teammates were running this event, which was really cool.  The 3k started at 8am with the 10k starting 5 minutes later.  We started the race inside Werner Park and then headed out for two loops around it.  I suspected that the course might be rather hilly based on its location, but holy cow...it ended up being more so than I thought it would be!  I ran the majority of the race with one of my Columbus friends, Darrin, who told me that our first mile was in 5:54! (Probably shouldn't have went out THAT fast, but hey, maybe this means I'll get a new PR at the Lincoln Mile in a couple weeks!)  We looped back inside Werner Park for the final .2...my final time ended up being 41:17.  This was a little slower than I was expecting as I felt like I was working REALLY hard, but it makes sense when I thought about the hills.  Don't get my wrong here, I'm not complaining about the hills, I just don't train on them very much so I wasn't that well prepared.  Hills are definitely a part of racing...and honestly, it's really hard for me to switch gears when a course is completely flat.  Point being: I'd take a hilly course over a flat one.  (That being said, the course will be different next year, with LESS hills.)  I placed second female overall, which I was happy with.  Afterwards, I cheered on my WRN teammates and found my husband and boys.

I had so much fun after the race with my family and friends...Werner Park was such a fun atmosphere for this race!  They served yummy corn and watermelon post race, which was a cool touch for a summer event.  We did not have to wait long for the awards and found out that all six WRN ladies placed!  I would definitely run this race again and look forward to the next event in the BRIN Running Series, the Harvest Moon Hustle.  Registration opens on July 1st, and beings CorNfield sold out, I'd register early to secure your spot.  Information regarding HMH can be found here: http://www.bornandracedne.com/

Full results from CorNfield CorNfield can be found here: http://www.onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=40568#racetop

Next up: Seward Optimist 10k...my LAST 10k before I get to switch gears to TRIATHLON!!

Happy Running! :)