Digiblogiola: First 10K Run

I did it, I ran my first 10K. I had a couple of goals in mind when I set off to do this, run the whole way without taking a walking break and keep up a 7 minute/kilometer pace which would put me in at 01:10:00. Seems reasonable?

First of all, my training runs for this week. I did 2K runs around my hilly Jerusalem loop on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, all of them at 7 min/k and it felt like a comfortable pace. Thursday I took off because I was feeling a bit of a sore throat coming on Friday I didn't want to do a workout the day before the race.

On Friday I went to pick up my race packet at the Ein Gedi Kibbutz. The week before the people at the resort blew me off when I wanted to go to the sports center. According to their website:

A sportsman's paradise - the Olympic sports center
Low precipitation, a comfortable climate almost all year round, a high oxygen content in the air, the sulfur springs, the concentration of minerals in the sea water, breathtaking scenery, the special atmosphere - in short, ideal conditions for fostering the good health and physical and mental abilities required for competitive sport.

In the very heart of this natural sports 'incubator', a sports center has been built at Ein Gedi offering visitors a wide variety of facilities, of the highest professional standard. These include: a gym, running track, football field, modern sports hall, tennis courts, swimming pools - one open, the other a semi-Olympic, covered and heated pool. Coaches interested in combining health and happiness are invited to bring their teams to Ein Gedi any time of the year.

Wow, I had to check this out. Well, here's their football field and running track:

The track is around the football field of course. I guess they bring out the astro turf for games. To be fair, the pool was very good but I haven't a clue what you need to do to gain access to the facilities.

Anyway, here's how it went, the official results:

01:10:24--Just missed my goal. So, did I run the whole way? Well, almost. Right aroung kilometer 7 there was an uphill with the wind behind me and it was getting damn hot! I walked maybe 300 meters which was just enough for some racewalkers to pass me--some really old racewalkers at that. I never caught up with them. Whoa, I was thinking about entering the racewalking category but was wondering if there was any competition, that would have been tough, especially after not practicing my technique in over 6-months.

The Polar readout tells the complete story. Click on it to see it in full glory. Notice that the foot pod is finally working. The guy at the Polar booth didn't bring any batteries so he opened a box, took out the battery and gave it to me. Thanks!

Here are some other photos of the event.

The racewalking DQ list--note the creative spelling.

I thought I'd take a photo of the Half-Marathon winner but there was such a crowd and as expected, an African won it. The winning Half-Marathon time was faster than my 10K time. I did get a good shot--of one of the last to finish.