Buckhead Sizzler 10K

So waking up at 6:00 AM on a Saturday SUCKED! The Buckeyes have another noon game today though, so it was kind of nice to get started early. The weather was perfect - about 60 degrees, very light breeze, and partly sunny. I got a spot pretty close to the starting line and got ready to go. They don't use chip time so I wanted to try to get as close to the start as I could, especially since I was planning to slide in just under an hour...

They got started a little late but whatever. I took off when the gun sounded and tried to find my rhythm. The first mile felt a little harder than I thought it would. I was watching my HR but had no clue what my pace was. I wanted to shoot for keeping my HR in the 'Threshold Zone' per Runners' World, which is defined as 88-92% of Max HR, or 176-184 for me. So I watched and it held, so I just kept running. I wasn't able to get into a rhythm at all for the first time, but did hear my time when I passed the marker in 8:50 - WHOA!!!! Time to SLOW DOWN! So I did what I could to try to slow and continued to watch my HR. I was still within the range I was shooting for, so all good for now. Well, I passed mile two in 17:40! Now i'm starting to get worried a little. I mean, I haven't trained AT ALL in the 'Threshold Zone' so who knows how long I can maintain it? 30 minutes? 40? Anyway, I'm starting to find a groove now and just trying to keep my HR in the range and keep it going. I get to mile 3 in 26:50 - OK, a little better...

By now we're starting to get to the part of town where I always run. Things look familiar and I'm settling in. I tried to find someone to pace me, but no luck. We're getting into the hills now and it's taking a bit of a toll. We're also having to dodge drivers that are making their way to the one gas station within 5 miles that has gas. The drivers don't really want to stop for us. Anyway, trucking along nicely. They had a water station at 4.5 miles so I actually slowed and walked quickly through it and got a cup of water. After that it was a nice, gradual downhill past the 5 mile mark. The first half of mile 5 was uphill, then it was downhill to the finish.

I have no idea what they are going to call my official time. I hit my watch right at the finish line and it read 55:58. Not my fastest 10K ever, but not my slowest. All in all, I'm happy with it. I held right at about 9:00 pace the entire time, which is not something I thought I could do at this point in my training. Nike+ continues to disappoint. It showed 9.65K at the finish. I'm pretty sure the course was accurate, at least according to MapMyRun.com. I'll drop in the route below. At any rate, 9.65K turns out to be 5.99 miles. Since my training plan only called for 6 today, I don't really care that much. It was a good day and a good race. Can't ask for much more than that. GO BUCKS!