Middendorf's Manchac 10 mile race

Welp, the slowness hasn't gone away. 1:08:32 I think for 10 miles.

In a bid for speed, I put on a Swift brand bandaid this morning.

Since I was turning this race into a long run, I came with a lot of fuel. And I don't know how a baggie of olives got into my stash of gels and gu. The only thing I took was the Gatorade prime.

I love this race - even though it's 50 miles away, we always try to run it, mostly for the catfish dinner served afterwards. We drove up early so David and I could get some miles in before the race. I did almost 5 before we started; he did four.

Thursday I developed a calf strain that was tender when I landed on it, so I smeared it with NSAID drops before leaving the house. It still hurt, but I know it will do away.

 I wormed up to the line before the start, but I could NOT get close and started pretty far back. That was my first mistake. My second was forgetting to clear my Garmin from the warm-up! I didn't know what time I had when I started running, so even though I finally had the presence of mind to hit lap at mile 2 I didn't know my total time at all.
It turns out it was plenty slower than I thought - between starting so far from the front and then dodging runners for a whole mile, I estimate based on my Garmin data that my first mile was a 7:48. Ouch.
For some reason this was a small field doing the 10 mile today (plenty in the 5k, though); I worked to try to keep my fast friend Celeste in my sight but never even got a glance at the lead female - Rachel Booth, of Disney half marathon fame. She's the top-ranked runner in the state and the only fastie who showed up today for the ladies.
I did see her at the turn-around, of course, light years in front. Celeste was #2, I was #3. Once we settled down after the 5k turn around I'd picked a few people off who looked like they were over-exerting themselves. By mile 5 I'd also passed one lady who worried me; she's the local professional triathlete who on a good day smokes me.
The last 5 miles were straight into the wind, and even though I though I was picking up pace I wasn't. Actually my splits are pretty even, minus the first mile. The wind was loud in my ears and I couldn't hear if anyone was behind me. I finally glanced back and couldn't even see another female! Then I relaxed. I was anxious to place because there was prize money, and yep, I'm greedy like that.
I wasn't thrilled to death to see a 1:08 on the clock when I finished. I'm not sure how to shake this slowness. I did a few more miles after finishing - I ran back along the course, found David, and ran back with him. He impressed me! He had a great run, 8:20 average pace, and his last 2 miles were both under 8.
I ended up with close to 19 for the day and David did 16.

Prizes! Glass, plaque, and check!

Then my day was ruined. I was thrilled to enjoy the beautiful weather and delicious catfish with friends and was ready for a nice Saturday, when my stomach decided it didn't like catfish, beer, and Gatorade Pro 01 Prime (a gel-like drink I took before the race since I'd added miles to my day). I spent the rest of the day in stomachache agony wishing I was dead.

Lessons learned today: Get closer to the front. Fight the headwind harder. Race the race, don't save energy for the miles after. Recover better - I do think I'm not sufficiently recovering; my legs felt sore close to mile 9. And biggest lesson? No Gatorade Pro 01 Prime. It was the only new thing I tried and I haven't felt this sick in years.