Discuss The First 10km Road Race That You Ever Ran.

Ran some hi-school cross country. Then took 10 years off.

Read an article in Runners World about how to break 40 minutes in the 10K. Went out and trained for 4 weeks running 4-6 miles

3xs a week and some sprints. My 1st 10K road race was a flat course on a cool morning. I took it out slowly respecting the distance....felt really fresh at the end, but missed my goal

finishing at 40:17. Next race 3 weeks later was better, 38:18.

My first 10k was the Greater Clarksburg 10k in Clarksburg, WV. I was 15 and my time was 38:25. There was this guy I was trying to beat. I passed him at the end, and he was actually CRYING. After I passed him, I let up my guard and he flew past me by inches. I blew him away the very next race and every race since. It was cool because there were some elite runners in that race, too.

aged 19 years, 16 years ago now. Ran my first xc race for my local athletics club. Ran better than predicted 39mins- 7 miles but conditions were harsh- rain, cold and got covered in mud!, found spikes clinged to mud and made it tougher.

Enjoyed this experience and never looked back since.

Diet Pepsi 10K in Amarillo in 1978 or 79. I was probably 17. I remember hilly, hot, and windy. I can't even begin to guess my time; I can't imagine it being very stellar.

Giralda Farms 10K, 1996, ran 42:25. Whole body was sore for the next week.

My first 10k race was on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) back in 1981 out in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I was 22 years old then. I finished 4th in about 38 minutes and won a $25 gift certificate for the ship's store. The course was 13 laps around the flight deck.

About a month later, while in port at Subic Bay I won my first road race, a 10k on roads through the jungle with stone throwing monkeys in 39 minutes.

Local 10k race when I was 15...Trained by running 6 miles every day the week before... Ran the first half around 24:30, second half around 23 min and finished 6th overall! Not a very competitive race, as the winner was like 38 minutes and change.

Mine was about 84 or 85 in June around a lake in Texas. Needless to say it was probably very hot. I didn't really know how bad the heat could affect you until that race. I collapsed from heat exhaustion after somehow veering off course about 5 miles in (I was in 3rd place overall and was running right at 6:00 pace). I awoke to find EMT's around and had no idea how I got in someone's driveway. Since then I've had a couple of close calls but never passed out again. Good times.

duh. wrote:

I haven't read a single one of these posts. I just jumped ahead and decided to post my experience because that is all that really matters to me anyway. Nobody will read this anyway.

Not true! :) (I'm doing a survey, really.)

When I was 12 my teacher said I had fast legs and told me to enter a 10km race. I didn't know how far 10km was, so I thought I would sprint as fast as I could until they told me to stop. After 28 mintues they told me to stop and that I had won the race and set a record.

They gave me a plaque and then I ran 30 miles all the way home to show my parents.

I was 13. 2001

I ran 44 minutes.

2000 or 2001, I was running a construction job in Bermuda, and ran maybe 5 races. Two of them were 10k races. Times were ~ 40:15 and 39:30, give or take. I would have been 25 or 26 at the time, and these were my first road races ever. Thus began an unhealthy (psychologically, anyway) obsession. :-)

Wheels and Heels, Seattle, 1991.

I pushed so hard that I nearly threw up in the second half. Had to back off a bit from there on in.

Afterwards the race director sent a letter, apologizing that the course was severely short. The route included highway 520 (Evergreen Floating Bridge) and the race management was unable to schedule a closing of the bridge before race day for measuring.

It was the final year for this race, which had been popular with wheelchair athletes nationwide.

I was 19, the start felt real slow, middle was tough tho, then started to pull people in in the last 2km, Finished second in 32min 30secs.

I was 16, ran 37:21 at the Burnie 10. Out & back course, windy on the way back.

I've only raced 2 10ks, and the 2nd one was on a track. First one was 2 years ago when I was 20, in February in western NY (it was cold!). The course was also exceptionally hilly. I was in so-so shape back then (18-minute 5Ks or so) and just ran this to see what I could do. I ende dup going out a little fast (5:47) and slowed down to accommodate the hills. It was out-and-back, and as soon as we turned around, I realized that it was also really freaking windy that day. I battled the headwind, and hen at mile 5, I saw the huge hill we had run down on the way out, and now had to run up. I slowed down to a crawl; it felt like 10-minute pace. I had a decent kick at the end and ran 38:21. I think I was 6th overall. Since then I have ran 1-2 minutes faster through the 10k in longer races like the Boilermaker and 10-milers and half-marathons but back then I was content with the time.

I believe it was 1975 or so - I was 15, ran in the mid 36's in Scranton, Pa. It was a blast.

The race was won by Mark Will-Weber who later became an editor at Runners World(?).

i was 16 and took it out with some old guy i figured i could stay with (was wrong). First mile was 5:21 and the second 5:27, it went downhill from there. I cooled it a bit and came through 5km in 17:45. by a water station at 7km I was walking/running. finished 10th? in 36:52.

Spencerport Canal Days 10k, 2001

Mascot was a whale holding a "Save the 10k" sign, because of a lack of attendance (they were planning on not having it after that year, but held on for one more year before folding)

I was going into my junior year of HS, 15 years old. A former teammate of mine, who was now a college runner, was my only real competition, but i had never run a 10k before. It was the middle of July, started about 9AM, but was already sunny and hot, probably high 70s or low 80s. Course was flat for 4 miles in semi-country roads, then circles around into the town and climbed a pretty nasty hill at mile 5. I ended up running just over 36:00. I was pretty proud of that at the time since my former teammate told me that if I could run 36 min, I was in pretty good shape. He must have been in really good shape though, because he soloed a 32, which I found to be unbelievable. He ended up qualifying for nationals in XC, and I went to HS states in XC. Great race, I wish it was still around.