Maifest 10K

I know I ran last week Thursday and told you all that I felt recovered from the Fargo Marathon. Funny how an easy pace and a few days off can make you 'think' you are recovered when you may actually not be.

Sunday was the Maifest 10K Run in Jacksonport, Wisconsin. Jacksonport is in Door County, WI which is the peninsula that extends into Lake Michigan from Wisconsin. Think of it this way, take your right hand and look at it palm facing you. Now think of that as a the rough (very rough) shape of Wisconsin. Door County would be the thumb sticking out. Door County is a very popular touristy place with many small shops and even more art galleries plus hiking, biking, and views that are spectacular of Lake Michigan, the islands, and the bluffs. I love going there and have been since I was a baby. So over the weekend, I took the girls and headed up there 3 hours, got a place at a resort with an indoor and outdoor pool, brougt up the bikes and had a really good weekend.

I have never run the Maifest 10K before so I decided to give it a try. It was warm and sunny but the course was about 80% shade covered to help with the temps that were in the low to mid 70's already at the 9:00AM start. After a 2 mile warm up, I was ready to go with a goal of trying to run 7:15 pace. My garmin took a dump after Fargo so I was going to have to try to wing it for pace, just like the old days. Turns out I am still (at least that day) a good judge of pace as I went through he first mile in 7:10. Mile 2 & 3 were still at a fast yet relaxed hard pace with 7:19 & 7:02. I hit the turn around of the mostly out and back course at about 22:15 and felt pretty good. I tried to count how many people were ahead of me and I think there were about 22 or so.

Right at the turn around, I passed one guy and another was right in front of me. This would be the last time I was near ANYONE in the race. The guy in front of me took off and caught up with the others in front of him and I took off on the guy I just passed. I ran the second half all by myself. With 2.5 miles to go, I was suddenly feeling Fargo. Mile 4 dropped to a 7:34 and mile 5 was a 7:47. I was drifting in and out of competitive spirits but did not want to be passed by anyone. I was able to pick it up for the last 1.2 miles and ran 7:31 pace and finish in 46:03 drenching with sweat. 7:25 pace, only 10 seconds off my goal pace but in a 10K, that adds up to a full minute plus. The last 0.6 of a mile was all in the complete sun with no wind and felt very hot. Maybe it wasn't all that hot for your southern folk, but we are not used to it yet up north.

This is a smaller town race so there were no results posted so I don't really know my final place. My guess is somewhere between 20th and 23rd but I did take 6th on my 10 year age group, that I could see since all they do it rip off the bottom of your race number and put it on a board in your age group.

There are no extras with this race except for a bottle of water at the end and a pretty cool shirt. But what do you expect for only $18. I got back to the hotel area and cleaned up, jumped in the pool for a quick swim and then off biking I went with the girls. Sort of my own little triathlon. the girls had fun so that is what mattered most to me.

I was able to run 4 miles today with Mike and realize that I am not recovered from Fargo yet. It's all good.