Shins, Swag, and 10K Friday Ramblings

Thank Goodness It's Friday bullet points, again:

• During my run on Tuesday night, I left the Shuffle at home since I didn't want to get hit by a car.  That left me plenty of time to overanalyze my splits from the Hershey 10K, and even more than before I am wondering if some of the course markings were misplaced.  I didn't have my Garmin, but here are the splits that I remember:
  - 5K: 27:00
  - 8K:  40:48
  -10K:  52:33
  Individually, each of these make sense.  27:00 is a pretty average  5K training time for me (I'm usually faster on race day).  My 8K PR at super-flat Shamrock was 41:40, so to be ahead of that is surprising, but out of the realm of possibilities.  My 10K finish time is in line with where I was at the 8K mark and how I was feeling at that point -- on my tired legs I was back at my usual 10minute-mile pace for the last 1.2 miles. And while it's considerably faster than I what I thought possible in this race (I thought the 54s or 55s was best-case scenario), I ran this very aggressively compared to my only other 2 10Ks (The first was my first time at that distance, period.  The second was the super-hilly Druid Hills 10K).
  
  What doesn't make sense is the combination of the three.  At Shamrock, I hit the 5K mark at right around 25 minutes.  At Hershey, it appears I ran 3K, almost exactly 2 miles, in 13:48.  I can get into into the low 6-minute mile range for one mile, but I'm just not that fast over two.  If anyone reading this ran the Hershey 10K, let me know what you think of the mile markers? (I'm pretty sure that last quarter km, at least, was super-wrong!).
  
  Or, maybe I did run the fastest 3K of my life in the middle of a 10K.  Do not try to bend the spoon — that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth: there is no spoon.
• I picked up our packets for the Sole of the City 10K last night. I admit that I love swag, and this is a pretty nice premium:

 

• My strategy for this race is still to take it conservatively and just have fun.  My legs still felt tired on Tuesday, and yesterday morning's 6.3 mile run at Cousler Park ended with considerable soreness in my left shin.  Not the usual place, this time, but closer to the knee.  I don't think it's serious, because I feel better this morning, but I hope it's not my the new Adrenalines which I really like.  It was cool yesterday morning, but the humidity was oppressive.  I've always felt like the humidity takes a lot out of me and that I feel worse all over after a really humid run, so I'm just going to blame that, hydrate, and foam roll the crap out of it, and whatever happens at Sole of the City happens. The weather sounds like it'll be in the high 60s and either rainy or very humid, so this is not the time to be a hero. Race report on Saturday or Sunday.

Until then, Run Happy or Get Revenge!