Run with the Wind 25k

The short:

I finally finished the Run with the Wind 25k feeling good - it only took 7 tries! I have always felt too cooked too early in this race, but being more conservative made for a more enjoyable final 5 miles, and I met my most important goal of breaking the Missouri 25k state record for my age (44), with 1:51:57. I ran the whole race with my running buddy Paul, who edged me by 0.06 at the end.

The long:

I tried to decide to run this race 5 days beforehand, but due to an up-in-air trip to Kansas I couldn't officially decide until about 15 hours before. I had a lot of fun racing last weekend so wanted to do it again, plus I enjoyed going to this race with my friend Sally last year and she wanted to run it again. We roped our friend Paul into going too, which was extra great for me because he and I are running very similarly right now.

I've run this race 6 times previously (2024, 2023, 2022, 2015, 2012, and 2010), even though every year I note how hard the course is for me! There aren't many 25k races so the Missouri single age state records are generally attainable; I've now broken a record 6 of the 7 times I've run this race (3 of them have since been improved by Katie), so that keeps me coming back. The race organizers announce which direction the race will run the night before, and this year was Carthage to Sarcoxie, which is the harder direction and means primarily a south and east route. The wind was behind us going east and we had a headwind going south, but it was lighter than in years past and not a factor. This was the warmest RWTW I've done, at around 48*.

Sally, Paul, and I drove over to the race together and registered. We hopped on the bus to the start, which was supposed to depart at 8:00 but left late, then drove the race course backwards instead of taking the faster route to the start on the highway. We took off our warm ups and put on our race shoes on the bus, then jumped off when it arrived at 8:45, ran into the bathroom and to drop our bags, then had enough time for a 1.1 mile warm up and 1 stride. We had a similar issue last year, and while it's not a huge deal I would have liked to get in at least 2 miles of jogging before. 

A blurry photo of the 3 of us early on

Sally, Paul, and I planned to start together. I figured Sally would pick it up and that Paul and I would be together most of the race, which is exactly what happened. Sally dropped the pace around mile 5-6, and Paul and I passed a couple of men together after that but it was all fairly uneventful. It was Paul's first time running this race so it was fun to get his impressions of the course. I started a gel at mile 5 but it took me until mile 11 to get the whole thing down due to some minor GI upset, but otherwise everything went fairly smoothly and it felt more like an uptempo long run than a race since it was mostly just me and Paul.

Around mile 12

Around halfway

Sally was far enough ahead of me and the next woman was far enough behind me that it was hard to be motivated to push too hard, but running with Paul kept me honest. We decided when our watches beeped mile 15 we'd race each other to the finish, and we went back and forth on who had a slight lead as we both picked it up. When we crossed the finish line we were uncertain which of us had edged the other, but our chips gave it to him by 0.06! I wish we had a video of that finish. There was a child running back and forth through the finish that complicated the situation.

I ended up 3rd overall female and 1st female age-graded. I got awards for winning my age group, winning female age-grading, and for setting a Missouri state record. I also won a $25 gift card and a free entry to another race, so I came out well! I imagine I will be back for #8 next year...

Race results are here and my 25k state record will be here 

From mile 4 on it feels mostly uphill because it is

Cabin Fever Reliever 10k

Sticking with my recent trend, I decided to run the Cabin Fever Reliever about 3 hours before the race. I went back and forth on running it the day before and figured I'd just decide when I woke up on race morning. I'd run that day regardless, so it was just a matter of whether it would be an easy long run or a 10k race turned into a long run. The race is only about 10 minutes from my house on country roads.

Post-race photo op in a high school cafeteria

I had low expectations for my performance, but it's a low-key race so I figured I could run 7:00+ pace and win overall female. My mileage has been 55-70 for months, so I'm not out of shape but I have no long or even medium workouts under my belt (I've been doing short workouts like 400s and 1:00 hill repeats). Plus, Jon was super sick and Albani had just gotten over it, so wasn't sure I'd be full strength. My running buddy Paul was also running the 10k and while we warmed up together I mentioned that I was worried my race pace would start with a 7 instead of a 6. He also wasn't sure where he was at, and we both wanted to run by effort, start conservatively and negative split, and figured we would likely be together since we have been really close in recent workouts.

At the start, I eased out comfortably and was quickly in first female position for the 10k. My friend Casey was running the 20k, which does the 10k course twice, and was a little ahead of me as expected (this was also why I ran the 10k and not the 20k!). Paul and I settled in together and the beginning felt easy. When our watches beeped mile 1, Paul told me it was under 7:00 and I said "no, don't tell me splits!", hah! But that did give me a little boost because it felt very maintainable.

Our effort gradually increased and as usual in the 10k I got to halfway feeling like I couldn't do the same thing again but knowing that I could. I also felt really glad I wasn't running the 20k this year! I have run the 20k twice at this event and it's never the greatest to pass through the finish and go back out to run the same course a second time.

Around mile 4

By mile 4 I felt like Paul was stronger than me but told myself to hang onto him as long as I could. "It's exponentially easier with someone" is what I always tell myself in those situations (or, "It's exponentially harder alone" when I'm being pessimistic). I stayed with him and around 4.5 I told him that I thought he felt better than me but I was going to hang on as long as I could. Less than a minute later he said, "Sara, I don't feel so good"...proof that we often don't judge the way others feel correctly! He told me to go ahead and dropped off rapidly, so I pushed on. I ended up feeling really strong the last mile. I could see Casey and 4 men ahead of me, so tried to pull them in, though I don't know that I actually did.

I ended up finishing 1st female in the 10k and 2nd overall person (3 of the men ahead of me were in the 20k), in 42:03. My mile splits on my Garmin were 6:51, 6:36, 6:35, 6:36, 6:42, 6:36 (6:24 final 0.3). I ran super even after a conservative start, because mile 5 has a lot of incline and I looked at another runner's grade-adjusted pace and it subtracted 6 seconds, meaning my effort was 6:36 on that mile! Overall GAP took off 4 seconds/mile average on the rolling course. Paul was only 7 second behind me; he said he had a brief pity party then got back on pace. Casey won overall in the 20k!

Happiness is reality minus expectations, so since I had zero expectations of running faster than 7:00 I was happy with my paces. I'm in a weird place because I'm far from my PRs but I still enjoy racing and can aim to nail pacing and win small races. It makes it hard for me to have time goals though!

I made the race into a 14 mile day for my long run for the week. I'm jumping in workouts with my friends, running long every Saturday, and consistently putting in mileage, but it's all pretty unstructured. I will likely decide some more races to run a day (or a few hours) before soon!

Race results are here. My first race of 2025!