8K Finished
I ran the Shriner’s 8K race this morning. It’s part of the Pacific US Track and Field Assocation road race circuit, so it always has a lot of fast runners from all over California and some other parts west as well. It was my first 8K ever. My goal was to try to set and stay at a roughly 6:30 pace, and demonstrate my progress toward a sub-40 minute 10K.
Temperature was probably 60s, mostly sunny, light breeze. Good conditions for an 8 a.m. start.
I started a bit farther back than I would have liked because the starting line was so crowded, and got off to a slower start than I expected. But after about 600 meters it started to thin just a bit, and then I was able to get up to my target speed. At that point I started passing slower runners. My mile splits (rounded) were 6:33, 6:20, 6:30, 6:34, and my last .97 mile split was 6:13. I was able to hold pace, pretty much, and I passed a few runners over the last two miles as some runners slowed down. Overall time was 32:16, a pace of exactly 6:30. So I hit my target right on the nose. In terms of age graded performance that’s equivalent to about a 40:50 10K, so I’m definitely getting closer. With a little more mileage and steady training I should be able to get under 40 minutes by early fall, maybe earlier.
I was very pleased with the performance, since it showed I’m right on track with where I want to be. But to put it in perspective, I only placed 14th out of 41 runners in my age group, and the top runner in my age group (45-49 years old) ran the 8K at a 5 minute/mile pace !! So I’ve got my work cut out for me. I’m looking forward to it.
