2014 RIVALRY CLASH 10K RACE PREVIEW

Two loops of this sort of off road course will be my challenge Sunday in the Rivalry Clash 10k.

Just a quick preview on this one because I'm not going to worry too much about this race. If you'll remember, I did this race last year and participated in the 5k. I set a new PR at the time and finished in 5th overall. The 10k this year should be much more competitive, so I don't expect to place or anything. I just hope to run a good time and possibly set a new 10k PR.

The issue with this race is going to be the terrain. There is limited pavement, a lot of gravel, and some grass. I don't think it's going to rain much, but it could turn into a muddy slog. I thought this race would be fast because it will be super flat, but they changed the venue to Portland International Raceway and morphed it into almost a "cross country" type race.

I'm not too worried about it. Whatever happens, happens, and if it's not a typical road race then it'll be fun to try something new! The course is a loop and for the 10k you have to do it twice... that's about the only thing I'm not looking forward to. My 10K PR was set on a long course so I don't necessarily even have to run quite the pace I did then to set a new PR, but again, with the terrain, a PR might be out the window. So overall I'm just going to show up, try hard, and not really worry about it.

GOALS:

"A" Goal: New 10k PR. This would be 44:00 or less, which is 7:04/mile. My PR was run at 6:56 but that was over 10.1k, so we'll see. The terrain is really going to determine whether or not this is even feasible.

"B" Goal: Barring a mudfest I'd like to get under 45:00. For some reason I've set that mark in my head as an acceptable 10k time.That's 7:14/mile. That over a cross country type course might be a huge challenge, but if a PR is out the window that would be my next focus.

"C" Goal: Honestly, I could run this thing super hard and still end up above 45 minutes. So I just want to run hard and don't feel like I left anything on the course. If that means I get 48 minutes on this double loop off-road course, then I'll be perfectly fine with that.