Final 2026 TC 10 Mile Thoughts

I posted my race report on Monday, and here are a few final thoughts...

I was quite happy with my race, and I was glad I "went for it" and didn't just try to hit sub-61. (Although I DID totally just make sure I was sub-60 and didn't go "all out" from mile 8.5 - 9.5 as I was dying and didn't want to explode.)

Just for curiosity's sake, I took a look at my mile splits from my 3 sub-60 TC 10 Mile races. ALL THREE were because of Coach Jen's workouts! (She coached me in 2010, and then I "reused" her workouts in 2024 and this year.) Here were my FASTEST mile splits, fastest half-way split, and fastest overall time highlighted in green:

Only THREE of my fastest mile splits were in my fastest race overall!!

I really hit miles 2 and 3 hard in my PR year, and then I really suffered later in that race. Two years ago and a few days ago both had races with 4 of my best mile splits. Miles 6 and 7 in this year's race really kept my spirits high when my body felt like it was starting to fail me.

And compare that to my SLOWEST mile splits in those races, where the 7 splits of my PR race that weren't my fastest splits were ALL my slowest splits:

It was FEAST or FAMINE for those splits in 2010!! Really good or really bad.

All this exercise did was reaffirm how perfect the race was (and felt) in 2024: only ONE split was my slowest of those 3 races, and 4 out of 7 of the final splits were my fastest that year - I was feeling good and able to push harder in the middle and end! That was a magical race in 2024, and still a darn good race this year. The 2010 PR race was a LOT of suffering.

2024 was also just sooooo consistent: only 1 mile was the slowest of the 3, there were 7 miles that were sub-6:00 (where the other 2 years only had 6 each), and it contained 0 miles at 6:10 or slower where I had 1 of those this year and 3 of those in my PR year of 2010!

Finally, as I noted in my race report, my wife's family was around to cheer near the finish line, but they missed me going past. Then I walked back a few blocks (until ALMOST the "big flag") and didn't see them, so I turned around to catch the train to get home. It turns out they were JUST past the big flag! Here was their view of the finish line off to the far right:

Waiting for Matt!


Yes, she has a lot of sass. :)


Jon waiting for Steph!


Amazing.


There goes Matt! In 1:28!


Nice Wes!


Running up to Aunt Steph!


Steph on her way to a 1:58 finish!

And finally, there was a guy who ran the MARATHON while portaging a canoe. He finished in just under 6 hours!

Here's my race report if you missed it. And here's a bit about my training from Coach Jen to hit sub-60 again this year: my first 5 weeks of training, my final 4 weeks of training, and two weeks of final hard runs.