Boston 10K for Women
The day after the B.A.A. Half Marathon, I ran the Tufts Health Plan 10K for Women. I know…it might sound a little (or very) crazy, but I love the runner’s high. So why not?!
The 10K took place on Columbus Day at the Boston Common, and unlike on Sunday, it was blue sky. It was still pretty windy and cold out, but it was nice to have the sun shining.
I originally signed up for this race as just a longer recovery run. All my recovery runs are 3-4 miles and my pace is about 2-3 minutes slower than my race pace. So I figured 6.2 miles of recovery pace was my game plan.
That game plan didn’t last long. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to use the 10K as a “run on dead legs”. (“Dead legs” meaning very sore legs from the half marathon). I figured the rest of the week would be full of easy runs and stretching, so I decided to push it this race.
Mile 1 I took slowly. I refused to look at my watch, ran intuitively, and let lots of people pass me. Mile 2 I picked up the pace a little, still refusing to look at my Garmin (anyone else get mentally psyched out when they know their pace??). Mile 3 I kept the pace similar to mile 2. Once I hit mile 4 I knew I was over halfway, so upped the pace quite a bit (still running intuitively and not looking at my Garmin). And once mile 5 rolled around, it was go-time.
6.3 miles with an average pace of 8:07. And my sixth mile? A 7:39! It’s such a rewarding feeling when you’ve been putting in so much hard work with training and seeing it all pay off.
I definitely recommend this 10K to anyone who is considering running it next year. So much fun, full of spirit, and an opportunity to run around Boston.
Your blog and your Instagram inspired me to get off my butt yesterday and go hiking haha. It had been a few weeks. Congrats on the 7:39!
Thank you, so glad to hear that!! I hope you had a nice hike, it must be so beautiful up in NH! <3