Running Pace

I am a fairly slow runner. While I’m working on my speed, I still consider myself to be slow. Last summer when I ran my first 5k race, I finished in 42:16, with a pace of 8:23 minutes per km. My goal is to run a 10k race in June of this year. At a pace of 8:23 that would mean it would take me an hour and 23 minutes to finish.

To make matters worse, since I’ve not been running as frequently as I was last summer, my pace is now averaging closer to 9:40. That would put the 10k at an approx time of an hour and 36 minutes*   I've also never ran longer then 45 minutes in one session.  Anything that starts with "an hour..." sounds pretty daunting.

When I look back at the results of last year’s Ocean Breeze 10k (the one I’m planning to do this year), the slowest person finished in an hour and 17 minutes at a pace of 7:46.

Crap.

While I don't care about being last, I'm not sure how I would feel finishing 20 minutes after everyone else.  Would they have all packed up and left by that point?

I'm not going to let this get me down.  I'm going to use this to focus my energy on working harder to get back (at least) to my pace from last year.

I will do this.

* Times based on Runner’s World pace charts.