Bellin 10k - Race Report

I knew immediately after last year's Bellin 10k, that I would be back again this year.  The event is a huge run (nearly 14,000 participants), it is extremely organized and runs super smooth, and literally some of the world's fastest/best runners run it.  Last year Meb ran it and he again was scheduled to be there.  Last year, after Meb finished, he turned around and ran back down the course to give high fives to the finishing runners.  It was one of my greatest memories as a runner.

Training for This Race

This year, I really wanted to PR in the 10k and ultimately finish in under 37 minutes.  If I were to do this, I would have to take a full minute off my current PR of (37:59) and run 1:15 off of last year's Bellin time.  In order to attempt to achieve that lofty goal, I needed to change my approach to training.  In past years, I have always been in the middle of another training plan for some longer event and then always participated in shorter (5k and 10k) races as lower priority races for training.  This year, I was focusing on the 10k and would be training specifically for this distance.  My training, which I just found online, included a lot of track workouts and very specific paced runs.  Below is what I did leading up to the Bellin 10k.

Prerace

The cool thing about this race is that not only was I doing it, but my wife was doing it and so were our friends, Jake and Tessa.  This was Jake's first ever race, which is awesome.  So, they picked us up shortly after 6:00 so we could park in the Pine Street Parking Ramp and take the shuttle over to the starting area.  This is exactly what I did last year and it just seemed to work really well and in my opinion, you would be foolish to drive your car to the starting area and try to find a spot to park.  We got to the starting area right around 7 which left me plenty of time to get a good warm up in and make my way to the first corral to get ready to start.

Nutrition Plan

My plan was simple and my usual plan.  I took two Anti-Fatigue Caps and two Endurance Aminos an hour before the start of the race.  I also drank a 16oz bottle of water with a Endurolytes Fizz tablet in it to top off my electrolytes for the race since it was supposed to be another warm race.  I was pissed that I completely forgot to bring my Fully Charged....

Miles 0-6.2

When I was lining up in my corral, I tried to make my way as close to the front as possible, but I just couldn't squeeze through the crowds to get as close as I would have liked.  That was my one mistake all day.  Once the gun went off, it took me probably about 400-1200 meters to finally get into some open air.  The entire first area I was stuck trying to dodge slower runners that shouldn't have been so far towards the front.  I felt like the frog in Frogger.  I was jumping from side to side and at times on the curb just to get past people.  I don't know what the ultimate impact was on my time, but It sure did get frustrating.  But once I got into some open space, it was smooth sailing for the rest of the way.  At around mile 2 I started getting side stitches.  Not sure why I got them, but I decided to keep pushing my pace with hopes that they would just slowly disappear.  They never really did and around the half way point, I realized that I probably wouldn't be finishing in under 37 minutes.  I continued to push and try my best to pass more people than the number of runners who pass me.  Around mile 4, there were 4 Green Bay Packer players on the side giving high fives and offering their encouragement.  It's kind of a neat dynamic.  Normally, I'm sitting in front of my TV or at Lambeau cheering on them and now here we are with the roles reversed.  After passing them, I knew I had only about a little over a mile or so to go.  Shortly after mile 6, I again got to give Meb a high five as he was running the course in reverse after finishing his race to cheer on the normal guys like me.  I finished this years Bellin in 37:33, in 43rd place overall, and 9th in my age group.  Last year, I finished in 38:15, 50th overall, and 13th in my age group.  So made some definite improvements and that's all I can ask for!

Post Race

After the race, we caught the next bus back to the parking ramp and stopped for some coffee on the way home.  Both of families had baby sitters watching our girls, so we decided to take advantage of that and we went back to our house and sat in the back yard and had a couple of beers to celebrate a great race by all 4 of us!

What's on Tap

I really don't have a clue what's on tap at this point.  I do not have any specific events on my calendar, nor do I have an upcoming big "A" race on my schedule to look forward to.  I think my plans at this point are to just enjoy summer, keep my running mileage up and take races as they come.