the "just run" strategy for the 100% Irish

this morning as i was making my way to the 100% Irish for a Day 10 miler i started thinking about racing. and running. and my lack of actual race strategy. i don't really plan for races. i mean i plan to run them. i train. i get everything set beforehand. i consider what i eat. and i often worry about how i am not consuming enough water. but when it comes to planning how to run a race based on paces. and tempo. and such. i just don't give it much consideration. or at least i hadn't. up until recently i pretty much have run all races at almost exactly the same pace. 5k's. 10k's half-marathons. and marathons. almost the same exact pace. doesn't make much sense if you actually consider it. the past two marathons i have included intervals and tempo runs into my training. and low and behold i actually have different paces. this has forced me to think a bit lately that perhaps i am not really pushing it as much as i should be. on short runs i have found a bit of untapped energy. i can actually run faster than i thought i could. fast no. just faster. and that is a start. so that brought us to today. and the 10 miler. after surf city five weeks ago i knew strategies for marathons were probably a good idea (to prevent the whole crash and burn due to going out too fast and lack of ingesting nutrition thing). but a 10 miler is not a marathon. it's not even half a marathon. so i decided that i would run. and not look at my time on my garmin. and then when i hit lake harriet for the second time i would harder. not much of a strategy but hey it was something. so i went with it. there was a clock at the first mile and it seemed that i was doing alright. not too fast. not too slow. everything felt good. i tried to exchange a bit of banter with a few folks but no one seemed to be interested. so i just ran. over to lake calhoun. a little breeze off the lake. another clock around 5 miles or so. saw emily a volunteer i knew that i said hello to. i was passing some people and just pushing once i hit the halfway point. back over to lake harriet and saw some much faster 10 milers finishing. so as my strategy anticipated i ran harder. and passed some more people. clock at the 1 mile mark (almost 8 mile). i turned to the person beside me and said "that was the longest first mile ever". she just looked at me. so i ran faster. at mile nine i dug deeper. saw steve in a speedo and yelled out a happy birthday (he is freaky fast!). another half mile and it was over. just under 10 minute a mile pace. fast - no. but faster for me. perhaps i will work on this whole strategy thing...