On September 26, I did a 10K race sponsored by the Twin Cities Race Walkers. I wanted to see how fast I could walk 10 kilometers, I was using this as a speed workout, as part of my training for marathons. They had a 5K race and a 10K race. I opted for the 10K, because I thought it would be better marathon training.
The race was held on the Gateway
Trail, starting and finishing in Flicik Park in Maplewood, MN. Our course was a one kilometer out-and-back
loop. There were orange traffic cones at
either end of the loop. The first turnaround
was 400 meters from where we started, so it was difficult to see the cone until
from the start. The other turnaround was
100 meters behind where we started.
Although advertised as either
5K or 10K, you could actually do any number of kilometers you wanted. One member of the club had to leave early, so
he only did one kilometer.
For running, I’ve found that I
can predict my 10K time by taking a recent 5K time and multiplying by 2.1. I saw no reason why that same ratio wouldn’t
also be a good predictor for race-walking a 10K race. In August, I walked a 5K race in 30:43. Multiplying by 2.1 gives a predicted 10K time
of 1:04:30, which works out to an average pace of 10:24 per mile.
It’s worth noting that my
recent 5K race was on a track, and I might not be able to walk as fast on pavement. It’s also worth noting that I’ve had six more
weeks to train since then, I had good reason to believe I’m in better shape
now. I mostly wanted to get a rough
approximation of how fast I should start.
I launched into a pace that was
so fast that I started getting out of breath.
At first, I was leading the race.
Then Jeff surged past me. That’s
when I remembered that he was only doing one lap. Trying to keep up with Jeff in a one-kilometer
race seemed like a bad idea. I kept up a
fast pace, but I allowed myself to fall behind a bit.
It was 400 meters to the first
turnaround. That’s like one lap around a
track. I was on my way back when I felt
my watch vibrate. It does that when it
records my time for a mile, but it was much too early for that. I looked at my watch and saw it giving me a 30
second countdown before going into energy saving mode. I thought I started my watch when I started
walking, but apparently I didn’t. I was
working my tail off to go fast, so it was frustrating that I wasn’t going to
know my pace.
At this point I wasn’t too far
behind Jeff. I no longer felt out of
breath. Having caught my second wind, I
decided to catch up to Jeff. For the
rest of the first lap, I matched his pace stride for stride. I asked him to tell me his time when he
finished.
As I finished my first lap, I
started my watch. Jeff stopped, but
yelled that his time was 6:26. I couldn’t
easily convert that to a pace per mile in my head, so instead I multiplied by
10. I was on pace to walk 10K in
1:04:20. That was pretty close to the
time I was expecting.
The pace still felt tiring, but
it felt more manageable than it did earlier.
I worked hard to sustain my pace in the second kilometer. When I finished by second lap, my watch read
6:18. I was pleased with that pace, so I
kept up my effort.
We were sharing the trail with
bikers and runners. I made a point of
keeping near the right edge of the trail, so I wouldn’t be caught off guard
when I heard an approaching biker say, “on your left.”
I was somewhere in the middle
of my third lap when my watch recorded my first split. I had finished one mile since starting my watch. I walked that mile in 10:05. That was faster than I expected. I kept up my effort.
When I finished my third lap,
my watch read 12:37. I had finished
three kilometers, but that was my time for two kilometers. I slowed down in that lap, but only by one
second. Bruce Leasure was both our
race-walking judge and our timekeeper.
As I started my fourth lap, he called out my time for three laps. It was 18:50.
He continued to call out my times each time I completed a lap. The difference between my watch and my
official splits was always 6:12 plus or minus one second. That meant my first kilometer was actually
faster than I thought.
The next time I got a mile
split from my watch, it was 9:55. That
really surprised me. I didn’t think I
would ever get my pace under 10 minutes during a 10K race. That gave me motivation to keep up my effort,
but that pace proved to be unsustainable.
None of my other miles were under 10 minutes.
It was around this time that I
saw a large group of runners approaching.
There were all wearing maroon. As
they got closer, I realized it was the University of Minnesota cross-country
team out for an easy training run.
After another half mile, I
finished my fifth lap. I was beginning
to feel ragged, but I was half done now.
I didn’t know if I could keep up the pace, but I was determined to fight
for it.
Twice per lap, I had to make a
180 degree turn. Each time I did that,
it slowed me down. Then I would light a
fire under myself to quickly get back into a fast pace. I used the turns as periodic reminders to
make sure I wasn’t slowing down. As this
point in the race, my biggest enemy was complacency.
I often ask myself if my pace
feels sustainable. I’m used to doing
marathons. I’m not used to doing 10K
races. There’s a big difference between
what feels sustainable in a marathon and what feels sustainable in a 10K
race. When I was in my 20s, I did lots
of 5K and 10K races. My recollection is
that I would feel out of breath after two miles. After that, I would fight for dear life to
hang on. The pace never felt
sustainable.
The next time my watch recorded
a split for a mile, it was 10:09. At
first, I was disappointed to have slowed down that much from one mile to the
next. Then I realized something. My PR for walking 10 kilometers was 1:03:45. That’s an average pace of 10:17 per
mile. Even though I slowed down, I was
still going faster than the pace I would need to set a new PR. I was more than half done. It was time to hang on for dear life. I fought harder to keep from slowing down.
When I was 100 meters away from
finishing my seventh lap, I passed one of the other walkers. It was the second time I lapped him. As I went by, he said his goal was to keep me
from lapping him three times. With only
three laps to go, I knew I wasn’t likely to lap him again, but I took it as a
challenge and used it as motivation to dig just a bit deeper. I didn’t pass him again, but I did pick up my
pace.
When I got my next mile split,
it was 10:03. I picked up my pace, yet I
was a little disappointed. I was working
so hard that I honestly expected to get my pace back under 10 minutes. By now, I only had about 1.6 miles to
go. I tried to pour it on, but I couldn’t
get any faster. When I eventually
finished another mile, it was 10:05.
In my last lap, I tried again to
pick up the pace, but it seemed like I was at my limit. 10K races are hard. Then I made the turn with 600 meters to
go. The remaining distance was like a
lap and a half around a track. Finally,
I found something within myself and made one last surge.
We weren’t all doing the same number
of laps. Even those of us who were doing
10K weren’t all on the same lap. As we each
approached the end of our final lap, we needed to let Bruce know we were
finishing, so he could record our times.
After making the final turn, I yelled ahead to Bruce that I was
finishing. I was so fatigued that I
almost tripped as I crossed the line. My
time was 1:02:51. I knew it was going to
be a PR, but I was still surprised to beat my old PR by almost a minute.
After the race, I had brunch
with Bruce. During the race, he was
making videos of each of us as we went by.
After the race, he was able to show me some of the videos. He sometimes slowed it down to one frame at a
time, so he could show me all the things he noticed about my race-walking mechanics.
A few years ago, I got to a
point where I could walk marathons pretty fast, but I was doing it with
inefficient mechanics. This year, I’ve
improved my form, but I still have lots of room for improvement.
One thing Bruce showed me
should be easy to correct. The other
things he showed me will be more difficult to correct. It’s one thing to know what you need to do. It’s another thing entirely to know how to do
it. That’s where I’m at right now. I have good endurance, but my walking still
isn’t as efficient as it could be. One
of the keys to getting faster will be improving my walking form.
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