Yesterday I raced the Atlanta Track Club (ATC) Members 10k in Alpharetta. This was the second event of the 2025 ATC Grand Prix series. This race seems to be an evolution of the Hearts and Soles race that used to be held in February. This was my ninth year participating in the combined series, second year as the “Members 10k,” and first on this (a new) course.

Official time

49:26

Average pace

7:58 min/mi

VDOT

40.6

Splits

Mile 1

7:57

Mile 2

8:02

Mile 3

7:58

5k

24:48 (7:59/mi)

Mile 4

7:55

Mile 5

7:55

Mile 6

8:03

Final 0.21mi

1:33 (7:09/mi)

Ranking

Overall

283/1,193

Male

225/660

Age Group (M40–44)

27/83

Event Page

2025 Members 10K

Strava Activity

ATC Members 10k

I planned to follow a similar strategy to the Jerome Scales Southside 5 Miler from February: target 7:50–8:00/mi pace for the first few miles, then try to pick it up each mile after that. Racing 6.2 miles is practically the same as racing 5, but the bigger difference here is that Jerome Scales was the target race for my last training cycle, whereas I’m smack in the middle of my current training cycle. Additionally, I didn’t back off on the weights Friday, as I had already missed Monday and Wednesday for spring break.

Robin ran the race with me. She is a more fit than me at the moment, but she felt good with my race plan. The first few miles went according to plan. I found the 7:50–8:00/mi pace a bit daunting in the first couple of miles and decided that I wouldn’t try to pick up the pace until the fifth mile. Robin pulled away from me in the fourth mile. At the four mile marker, I had averaged 7:58/mi. I targeted 7:55/mi or faster for mile five. Mile five had a decent hill which I pushed up, and I managed 7:55 for the fifth mile. Unfortunately that was all I had, as I faded hard on the sixth mile, struggling to ever get my pace under 8:00/mi. I felt like I didn’t have another gear to go to. I managed a small kick in the final bit of the race.

Even though I couldn’t execute on the second part of my race strategy, the fact that my splits were all fairly even, and I managed a small negative split, indicates my initial target pace was spot-on.

My race result is a Jack Daniels VDOT score of 40.6, lower than February’s Jerome Scales. However, this was my fastest 10k since 2020’s Virtual Prepping for Peachtree 10k (44:43).