Victory 10K – A New PR + Ending the Year on a High

I added one bonus race to my schedule after all of my races (except the City of Lakes Half) ended up being 70-90+*F this year! Running fast and setting new PRs in the heat is difficult, so I felt like I needed some redemption. And I am so glad I did because I ended the year with a new PR and running faster than I thought I would!

It was a last-minute decision to run the Victory 10K in Minneapolis last Saturday. After the Twin Cities 10 Mile, I wanted some redemption before I closed out my racing season for the year. I started looking around for possible races, but then life was busy for a few days, so I forgot. The Monday before the race rolled around, and I started looking again. I had heard of the Victory 10K through a friend, and she said it is flat, fast course. I had to figure out childcare for the boys since Craig is busy in the field harvesting in October, but once that was squared away, I signed up.

I went to the race by myself race morning, which is always a little sad, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from having a good race. I warmed up for two miles before the race as it was a chilly 50*F which felt cold during the warm-up, but I knew it was going to feel great once I was racing!

After warming up for about 30 minutes, I hopped into the start corral ready to go.

I knew my previous PR was from 2022 during a race in Alaska right before we moved. It is one of my weakest PRs still standing–mostly because I haven’t had any opportunities to run a fast 10K within the past few years. The time I had to beat was 38:25 (6:11 min/mi pace), and I was pretty confident I could do that. Based off a couple of other recent PRs, I was pretty confident I could break 38 minutes and anything under that was going to a little extra sweetness.

I made it my goal to run 6:05 – 6:07 min/mi pace. Mile one felt pretty good but even at 6:08 pace, I knew this pace wasn’t going to be a ‘walk in the park.’

Mile 1 – 6:08
Mile 2 – 6:05

I was right behind another girl for these first couple of miles, and I felt like she was keeping a really good pace and a pace I wanted to run, so I just focused on hanging onto her. Shortly after mile 1, we made a left turn onto Victory Memorial Drive. I have to admit, this race felt long from the get-go, so I just told myself to get halfway and it would feel shorter going back. (It didn’t. Oh, the lies we like to tell ourselves.) Mile two seemed to take forever to come, but eventually my watch hit mile 2, and I was happy to see 6:05 pop up.

Before we got to the turnaround at mile 3.1, we had a long, gradual climb. Luckily I didn’t really feel it too much, but it did affect my pace a little. The leaders were also heading back to the finish, so I counted to see how many women were in front of me: 3 Minnesota Distance Elite runners, one former professional runner, and two others. I thought that was pretty good considering who I was racing!

Mile 3 – 6:10
Mile 4 – 6:18

The hairpin turn luckily came pretty quickly with those distractions, and then I started to fly down the hill during mile four. Oddly, my watch didn’t reflect the increase in pace, but afterwards, my GPS map of the course was way off, so obviously my GPS was off. I’m honestly not even sure if I saw the split for mile four. If I did, I knew I had banked a couple of extra seconds but also a 6:18 pace does not set me up well for a sub-38 10K. I knew I had to book it.

Mile five and six felt long, but that’s because I was hurting. I had to will myself to keep going, and I kept telling myself not to ease up because I didn’t want to see 38:XX on the block. Then during the last mile, I saw splits in the 5s (maybe even 4s!), and then I knew my GPS was *definitely* off! But also this kind of gave me the confidence boost I needed because I knew I was running fast.

Mile 5 – 6:03
Mile 6 – 5:11 (not accurate!)

At this point, I was checking my total elapsed time more to see if I was going to squeeze under 38 minutes. From my calculations, I thought I could, but I also could not let up on my speed. During the last 1.5 miles, my EILO (breathing issues) started to kick in, and during that last 0.5 mile I was really gasping for air. I was trailing the same guy I was trailing during the City of Lakes Half, and I just told myself to stick with him.

As soon as I could see the finish line clock, I saw 37:XX, and I willed myself to fight for every second under 38 minutes.

I crossed the finish line, 100% spent, knowing I had given it my all.