Zombies, Run! Virtual Race 10K

1:48:07 hours - 6.40 miles - 16:53 min/mile

I did it! Decided after all to try the 10K — I thought it would be better to do the mileage I needed for my half marathon training, even if I did it very slowly, so I didn't get too far behind on that. If my knee started to hurt, I figured I'd just do more walking.

I drove to the park and got started around 9 AM. Fortunately, the weather was cloudy and cool, and stayed that way pretty much the whole time, so I didn't have to worry about the sun slowing me down! I took my sport watch and started out with a 1:1 minute run/walk ratio, which was what the watch was already programmed for. I kept my running pace nice and easy, and there were no zombie chases to worry about, so I just jogged along. Felt fine for the first 5K or so, but then my knee started to twinge, so I increased my walk breaks to 2 minutes for the next kilometer or so. Then my knee stopped twinging, so I went back to 1:1.

I made sure to drink some water every mile or so, and ate a GU at 3 miles. I didn't get tired or sore anywhere except the knee, so everything else was fine. After about 8 K, my knee started twinging again. I started to do the increased walk breaks, but they didn't seem to be helping. I was on the downhill stretch at that point, and it felt like I was jolting my right leg when I slowed down from my run breaks, so I just kept running. That worked until near the end, when my knee suddenly went, Nope! So I just walked the last few tenths.

My splits were 15:39, 16:55, 16:26, 17:20, 17:27, and 16:37. The first three miles weren't too bad. I slowed down after that mostly because of my knee and increasing the walk breaks. If my knee hadn't been bothering me, I probably could have kept it to around 16:30, which isn't bad considering I'm coming off of a two-week break due to an injury. Anyway I wasn't trying to go fast, just to finish without overdoing it, which I did.

The mission was fun, too. I'm glad I did the training runs, they added to the story. It was pretty exciting in places! It's cool how you get wrapped up in the story and really want to run in the dangerous spots. And my tee-shirt is awesome. Really glad I decided to sign up for the Virtual Race!