Race Report: Havelock 10k

No race picture because of the rain, but found this little guy during a training run!

I competed in the Havelock Run 10k this past Saturday.  I have run this race several times and have always had a fun time.  One of the reasons is that the event includes a team competition, scored like they would in cross country (averaging the top 4 times, fastest average wins).  I was slated to be on a mixed team, so in this case, the top two ladies and top two men score.  After our son Anders was hospitalized on Tuesday, I wasn't sure that I would even be able to run on Saturday.  However, he was released on Friday and after literally not having left the hospital for three days, racing sounded like the perfect plan.

Because of the unexpected stay at the hospital, I did not run at all after Tuesday morning.  With extra rest, I was feeling pretty good Saturday morning when my alarm went off a little after 5am.  Upon checking the weather, I saw that there was a 100% chance of rain.  (It was coming down pretty hard as I pulled out of my driveway and did not abate until maybe an hour after the race.)

My teammates and I hunkered down in our vehicles until about 10 minutes to race start.  At this point, we just accepted that we were going to be soaked regardless.  It was a little cool (64 degrees) standing around, but once we started running, it felt great.  I once again did not start my watch and was just planning on racing by how my body felt.  A little over a mile in, we turned off of Havelock street onto 84th and had to cross through a HUGE puddle/stream because of all the rain.  (I didn't know this was going to be a Steeplechase!)  As I pushed up the first big hill on 84th, I for some reason had it in my head that there was lots of women in front of me and that I wasn't racing well.  I found myself justifying this in the early miles... my baby was in the hospital all week...I barely ran this week...I haven't slept much in several days...who cares if I don't well today, no one will judge me...the rain is making it hard to race...this is a hilly course...etc.  I was totally on top of thinking up every reason in the world to have a bad race.  However, things started to turn around for me once I hit the 5k mark.  Only 3 miles left.  Only 20 minutes to go.

Part of the course (mile 4-mile 5) is looped through Mahoney.  As I entered the park, I saw that Mike Morgan, a NE Wesleyan alum who has went on to have an amazing career with Hanson-Brooks in Michigan, was leading the charge. (Why was he back???)  He was followed by a few guys I knew, but many I did not.  Where are all these fast guys coming from?!  Anyway,  it was around this point that I realized I wasn't doing as poorly as I thought.  As we ran back, I counted only 5 women...two of which were literally right in front of me.  We finished out the race together and I ended up placing 4th with a time of 41:04.  I really needed to get back to my family as soon as possible, so I did not stay for awards, but heard that my team placed 2nd in the mixed division.

Next up is CorNfieldCorNfield on June 28th, which is part of the BRIN Running Series.  If you were thinking about registering for this race, do it SOON as I believe it will be closing.  Check it out here: http://www.bornandracedne.com/

Happy running and racing!

Complete results to the Havelock 10k can be found here: http://www.onlineraceresults.com/event/view_event.php?event_id=13341