2014 Railrunner 10 Miler- A GREAT Day for a Race!

Bob with 3Way Racing

On Saturday, March 15 Gerard(my hubs:)  and I ran the RailRunner 10 miler. I was so excited for this race, it was the first race of the year that almost all of my running buddies was going to be at I have missed them so much this LONG FOREVER ONGOING winter we have had!

I went into this race with a few goals:
*Beat last years time
*With "Luck" finish before or right beside Gerard
*Have an overall pace as close to 9:09 as possible

For once the weather was predicted to be a beautiful morning and it actually was! It was a little cool to start (around 35°) but warmed up quickly as the sun was shining! We all gathered up at the start line and did the "talk" of what we hoped to happen that day. I don't think I ever came right out and told Gerard I was hopeful to beat him but he knew I had it on my mind.

Off we went and way too fast as usual for me. I had said my intention was to start around a 9:30ish pace and get hopefully faster with each mile, about a ½ mile in our buddy Ricky yelled "What happend to that 9:30 pace?" and yep we was way to fast! And as usual I felt comfortable and decided to just keep going with it as long as I could. I stayed side by side with another buddy(Michael Lee) I think we was feeding off each other he would look at the pace and say lets slow it down a little, I would look and say we are still pretty fast maybe we SHOULD slow down some. After about 2 miles in I could no longer hear Gerard and Ricky talking with each other so I felt like I was making a pretty good lead on them.

Me of course Gerard in white and Ricky in blue

This race is held on the RJ Corman property in Nicholasville, KY. It is a very beautiful place with a great path to run on. For this race you do the 5k loop then run up/down the airport runway and make the 5k loop again. It is fairly flat the whole way with one fairly good hill  half way on the 5k loop and another one towards the end of it but the worst part for me is the runway its flat straight and seems forever long! This course is  very close comparison to the half course I hope to PR on in April that's why I wanted to try for as close as possible to a 9:09 pace.

I was able to stay with Michael for about 4½ miles then I had to start falling back, I took about 5 steps to try and slow down my pace and get a comfy pace again and this was the point when we hit the runway.

Michael Lee

This cracked me up when I saw this LOL!!

The runway just a long straight concrete path all the way down one way loop around ALL the way down to the other end, I swear it seems like that second end keeps getting farther and farther away instead of closer. The first end of it I was still pretty close to Michael and probably a good minute + ahead of Gerard but then I was getting close to the six mile mark and slowly going down hill. I tried my best to slow my pace but just keep on moving, coming off the runway was around mile 8 and I was pretty much done mentally and still had to go up the hills. I am a HUGE fan of giving myself "pep" talks in my mind it seems to work for me most times and this day was no exception. From 8 on I was telling myself over and over "You only have 2 miles left, Your light as a feather light on your feet, Don't think about it and just keep moving, Less than 2 miles now just take your time and keep moving!" It was tough at times and I really wanted to be closer to that finish line. I saw Sherry when I was at 8 ½ and I said "only 1½ to go" she knew I needed her to say "you got this". Not only do you have the two hills twice but you also cross a concrete foot bridge twice, the bridge is ugly it shakes, it bounces, it makes you dizzy and feel sick! The first time around it didn't seem to bother me so  bad but that second time was AWFUL I walked across it but when I started running I was still dizzy from it. It instantly made my stomach upset and make me feel ill but I kept on going. I was really close to making the final turn to the finish line when I saw another way faster than any of us buddy Jason who was walking back for his wife Angela so I asked him "Do you see Gerard? Is he close or do I have him?" He smiled real big and said "Your good you've got him!" I got excited felt my pace picking up had to slow it back down thought I was going to get sick saw the finish line and just wanted to cross it!

Mile 1- 8:57                                        Mile 6- 9:11
Mile 2- 8:50                                        Mile 7- 9:18 
Mile 3- 8:55                                        Mile 8- 9:45
Mile 4- 9:05                                        Mile 9- 9:59
Mile 5- 9:17                                        Mile 10- 9:34

Finish Time 1:32:54 which is 3 mins faster than last year and I finished before Gerard(his time 1:33:22) My overall pace was 9:18 so it was fairly close and there is still time to hopefully work on it a little!

All in all I would say it was an Awesome day and an Awesome race held by some pretty Awesome people! After chicken sandwiches from Zaxby's was offered as well as home made banana ice cream my favorite part of the entire race! Thanks Bob and company with 3Way Racing as well as RJ Corman owners for hosting such a great race!

Gerard at the finish. I didn't like my finish photo so I didn't share it:)

Sherry- This chic did AWESOME!

All Photos are property of The Picture Lady.