6 Dot Dash 6k Race Recap

This morning Rob and I ran a 6k called “6 Dot Dash” which was held by the National Federation of the Blind to advance Braille literacy. The last time I ran a 6k was 2009 and Rob has never done one before. I figured I could beat by time of 29:01 (7:45 pace) based on my 5k times, but wasn’t too worried about it. I knew the course because it was on streets I run everyday. We went to Charm City Run yesterday for packet pick up and realized it would be a small race of about 125 participants. Last year it was held as an 8k and when I checked out the times there were definitely some fast runners.

6 Dot Dash 6k Pre-Race

I was really relaxed going into this race- even when its a small, non-goal race I usually feel nervous! I had a banana with peanut butter and a honey stringer waffle around 6:30am with some coffee. Around 7:15 we jogged over to the start, and I ran a warm  up run once we were there for a total of a little over 2 miles.

6 Dot Dash 6k Race

The gun went off right at 8:00am and immediately we were running uphill. Luckily I knew exactly what to expect because past the start line we ran for about 10 seconds on flat road, turned left and we were going uphill. After about the first half mile we got a nice downhill and then flat road for a bit. I had been running right behind Rob and then two girls who looked around my age passed us so I decided to keep up with them. After passing Rob I stayed with the girls for most of the run.

We ran on the harbor promenade and then had an uphill from about mile 2.8-3.4. This was the hardest part of the race, but Rob passed me and urged me to pass the girl in front of me. (The other one was pretty far ahead). I managed to catch her and almost got the other girl as we sped down the last downhill stretch towards the finish (the same hill we started on). After finishing I learned that I ended up finishing 3 seconds behind the girl I almost passed. I chatted with the girl who I did pass (we had talked a little during the race) about the killer uphill at the end and then I jogged a cool down mile.

6 Dot Dash 6k Post- Race

We waited around the for awards although neither of us knew if we had placed. There were a bunch of really fast guys, we just weren’t sure how many of them were in Rob’s 30-39 category. It turned out I was the 4th overall female so if I had caught that girl who meet me by 3 seconds I would have gotten 3rd overall. But instead I got 1st female in 30-39 and was perfectly happy with that. The girl I passed turned out to be in her 20s so she got first in her age group as well, so I didn’t feel as bad about passing her:) Rob ended up being 4the in his age group, so no award but almost all the fast guys were in their 30s, whereas the faster females were all in their 20s.

According to my watch my pace was 7:16 but my watch measured the distance as 3.74 (a 6k is 3.728). According to the official results my pace was 7:22. However, when I put my results into a pace calculator it came up as 7:18. So it was somewhere around there! And since I don’t run 6ks very often I am not worried about it.

Final Thoughts

The 6 Dot Dash was a challenging race and I definitely had a moment at the end of thinking “why am I doing this?!” I also wished it was a 5k when I passed that 3 mile mark. Most importantly I felt GREAT…no pain at all during or after. This will be good news to share with my chiro. We would probably run the 6 Dot Dash again next year if it fits into our training/race schedule.

The heat certainly didn’t help things and now I am worried about how hot it could potentially be for the Baltimore 10 miler next weekend! I guess it’s time to get used to running in 80+ degrees even in the morning.

What’s the most random distance you have ever run?

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