This was a 10K I was running to see what kind of shape I was in for the up coming California Internation Marathon. It was the first race that I actually did better than I had hoped. Here's what I thought of it in 1992:

I ran in was the 10K Davis Turkey Trot in Davis, CA. Davis is home to a University of California campus. It is a flat place surrounded by corn fields as I had hoped. It was also devoid of the street people you find in Berkeley and I'm sure it didn't have a lot of car jacking.

The campus had a nice stream running through it with a bike/running path next to it and a lot of trees. The buildings were pretty run of the mill mid 60's architecture. All in all it was a pretty nice campus. A place I wouldn't mind working.

The town was sort of suburban and had some neat yuppie type places. A lot of cafes and news stands, good book stores that played soft classical music and made it easy to browse.

The weather was in to 50's and the leaves were still turning colors. I've heard it's pretty much like that all through the winter. In the summers it gets up in the low 100's, but its a dry heat and not as bad as the humid days of hell in July and August in the midwest. Can you tell I liked the place?

Anyway, the course was flat and fast. The weather was cool and clear. Perfect. I had hoped to run a 38:48 and had determined all my mile splits so I could adjust my pace as necessary to obtain my goal. 38:48 was about 30 seconds faster than I had ever run so I was going for a PR.

Davis is about an hours drive from where I am staying so I had to get up early on Saturday to make the trip to the race. I got there at 7:30am. My race wouldn't be until 9:00am though. I spent the time standing in line for the port-o-potties and stretching and warming up.

There were a lot of really fast guys there for the 5K. It was a championship race and the winner was running at a 4:36 per mile pace. Pretty fast. I had run against those guys two weeks before in a championship 10K and gotten blown away. Today they seemed to all be running the 5K though.

My race started on time. I had picked a place in the crowd near the beginning since I planned to run fast. But even so there were a lot of slow people around I had to zoom to the outside and pass them all. I made it to the first mile in 5:36, about ten seconds faster that I had hoped for. I felt pretty good so I didn't slow down a lot.

I felt I was running a bit different that usual. My stride felt weird, as if my whole body was twisting and turing with each step. It didn't hurt or anything, but I felt my hips and shoulders moving more than they usually did, but I was running a lot faster that I have for a while.

The second mile came up at 11:47. I guess I had slowed up, but I was still under a 6:00 per mile pace and was faster that the pace I had planned on running. I now started to think about finishing in under 6:00 per mile. It was only in the back of my mind though since I had never done anything like that before.

Mile three came up at 17:47. I ran a 6:00 mile and was still doing okay. The race was about half over. I had never run this fast before. My best three mile time before had been in highschool and was about 18:00. I was still passing people, though not as many and not as quickly.

I worked hard to pass a muscle head guy. He was in great shape and had a huge upper body. Giant biceps and pecs and a tiny waist. I blew past him just after the third mile and never saw him again.

23:57 had passed by the time I made it to the four mile point. I was still under 6:00 a mile, but just barely. I wasn't really tired, but I started worrying about finishing strong. I haven't run a lot of 10Ks and wasn't sure what the last two miles would feel like. Plus even though I've run far a lot of times, I wasn't used to running this fast I didn't know how much I would have left. But I started thinking a lot about the sub 6:00 per mile pace. I did the math and found I'd need to finish in 37:12. That was in my grasp.

I wasn't putting a lot of pressure on myself though. I was way ahead of my goals for each mile and figured I'd finish faster than I had planed. But I didn't know how much faster.

Mile five and the time was 30:01. Damn! I was just over 6:00 per mile. I was slowing down and I really felt it. I knew I had a mile and two tenths left, but I didn't have any feeling as to how far that was. In marathons I have always known that for almost that whole race, no matter how far you've run, you still have a hell of a lot more to do, so don't think anything else. But now I was almost there.

I passed mile six at 36:20 or something. I couldn't see the finish line and figured it was still quite a ways away. But seconds later I turned the corner and saw it. I began a good kick but didn't time it just right. Again I was worried about poopping out. I passed two guys, but one had a good kick and caught me. The three of us were elbow to elbow at one point, that's when they took the picture. I finished in 37:36, only 24 seconds over a 6:00 per mile pace. I was both happy and disappointed at the same time.

I'd just bettered my personal best by 1:30, but I could have run faster and then I'd have beaten the 6:00 per mile pace. A little more experience was all I needed. This time I had enough training, but not enough experience.

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