Easter SunRun 10K Race Review

Easter weekend I ran a 10k.  In past years, I opted for the 2 mile race that follows the 10k, but this year I was climbing back from injury, and I thought it best to go for the extra mileage without the lung busting, muscle burning pace of a 2 miler.  Instead of going into great detail about the race, or who I saw and where, I am going to shift focus to a self reflective analysis of how temperatures can affect your race performance.


Let me just come out and say it right off the bat...  I set a 10k PR that day (by 21 seconds) when I thought I had no business coming close to one.  Some of you might recall my injured hip flexor that kept me from running the first 2 months of the year.  Well, the Easter SunRun came a little over a month after I started getting my running legs back to pre-injury form, and I still have a ways to go.


In fact, the week of the SunRun I did a test where I kept my heart rate at 175 bpm for about 8 miles and compared that to an identical run I did last fall.  The results indicated my pace was currently 30 seconds slower.  So, how did I manage a PR when I wasn't in top form?  My only explanation is the weather, just ask those who ran Boston this month.


As far as 10k's go, I really only do the same one every year, and it occurs more towards Summer.  Temps for all my previous 10k's have been in the 70º to 80º range.  Temperatures for the Easter SunRun this year were in the mid 50s with cloudy skies.  There have been plenty of articles published about why and how heat affects runners, so I won't go into much detail about the science here.  My hope is that my recent experience and the statistics I've recorded can serve as a good real world example of how varying temperatures can affect you.


Now I will concede that I made some decent progress between my previous 10k's and my injury, so an argument could be made that by taking "two steps forward and one step back," I still end up 1 step ahead.  However, I have one more point to make.


One week prior to the SunRun, I ran 2 legs in a relay which were on average 0.7 miles shorter than a 10k.  The temperatures for the relay started out in the 70s, and ended in the mid 80s.  It was a struggle for me to maintain an 8:00 pace.  In comparison, a week later at the SunRun 10k, I averaged a 7:04 pace.  Notice in my charts below the 10k is the longer race yet my pace is faster while my heart rate is lower.


Here's my Garmin Data from my last leg in the 84º Brew to Brew Relay 04-01-12:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg HR	Max HR
1	08:08.3	1	188	197
2	07:49.7	1	193	196
3	07:54.9	1	197	200
4	08:05.1	1	199	202
5	05:36.0	0.73	202	203
Summary	37:33.9	4.73	195.8	203

Here's my Garmin Data from the 55º SunRun 04-07-12:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg HR	Max HR
1	06:55.0	1	174	186
2	07:09.0	1	186	190
3	07:16.4	1	190	195
4	07:09.4	1	191	195
5	07:06.1	1	193	198
6	06:55.4	1	197	200
7	01:24.0	0.23	200	203
Summary	43:55.0	6.23	189	203

2Slow4Boston Easter SunRun 10k
Chip Time	43:54 (PR)
Overall Place	68/689
Age Group	6/37
Average Pace	7:04

I'll leave you with a few pics from the SunRun:

I wonder if the guy in red looks as awkward in motion as he does frozen in time.

Headed down home stretch.  HR = 203

All smiles post race while pitching a different kind of tent.