Hendersonville Classic 10k

Man, I'm falling behind here.  But on Memorial Day, I jumped into our local 5k/10k race.I race in Nashville a ton, but I've only done a few races in the Hendersonville area, which is my backyard.  Since I'm focused on the half-marathon, I felt the 10k would be the better option, especially since the local pro triathlete won the race last year. I can't have that!

The race starts at Drakes Creek Park, before venturing out to the greenway and then finishing up on Indian Lake Blvd.  It's a mostly flat course, even though there's some tough little climbs. It benefited the Cumberland Crisis Center and was put on by Mauricio Sanchez, who I knew would do a great job.

I was hoping to run around 5:00 pace and sneak under 31:00.  A 10k at half-marathon pace is one of my favorite sessions and with the weather and being a little rundown lately, I felt like I was around 65:30 half-marathon shape in those conditions, so 5:00 pace it was.  Well, a tad under since 30:59 gives you more street cred than 31:00.

I saw one of my Nashville running friends, Jackson Miller on the starting line, and talked with him for a couple of minutes before the race started. When the gun went off (well, it could have been a gun, I don't remember) I found my rhythm and was feeling pretty good.  I went through the first mile in 4:47, which was surprising.  It felt pretty smooth and I wasn't sure if the course was certified or not, so I kept on.

I haven't been lost in a race in probably over a year.  I used to get lost all of the time and in high school, I even got lost in a cross country meet twice in the same race, despite running with the course map.  Well, it was time for a detour again as I cut a right towards the parking lot, instead of going straight on the road.  We eventually figured out we made a wrong turn and I was back on my way after losing around 10 seconds or so.  Despite that wrong turn, I went through the second mile in 4:54.

After the second mile, it was time to leave the park and head to the Hendersonville Greenway, which I run on quite a bit.  I had a hard time believing I was running close to 30:00 10k pace, so I switched my Garmin screen over a few windows to check out my average pace.  It said I was running 4:48 average, which was a bit of a morale booster, because it felt so smooth, but also let me know to back off a bit.  The third mile had a mini monster hill and I tried to power to the top and lost some time on that mile as I split 5:08.

After leaving the greenway, the course weaved around Veteran's Park and then went through some neighborhoods that I've never been through.  I started to feel the weather a little bit and was also getting a little tired but I tried to still keep a steady rhythm.  Finally, we left the neighborhood, jumped onto Indian Lake Blvd. (not literally) and I knew we were getting close to the end.

Indian Lake has a couple little rollers, which always get to me a little bit. I did my best to get over them without pushing too hard and could finally see the entrance to Drakes Creek Park in the distance.  I made my way into the park and came through the finish line in 30:26 to take the win.  My GPS said 6.32 miles, which is almost dead on for a normal certified 10k course.  It was a good confidence booster because it felt pretty smooth and would have been under 30:20 without the wrong turn.  Hopefully this means things are on the upswing.

Overall, I like this race a lot.  It was well managed, I always like it when races have 5k and 10k options and they even had free snow cones!  Next year, if you're looking for a Memorial Day race, come up the road to Hendersonville.  I got the pictures from www.memoriesbymurray.com, so be sure to check out his site.