So here is why the 10K worries me...

I'm a beginner runner. Yes, I ran when I was in the military, but never by choice. I started seriously training to run in August after my first 5K. The beauty of the 5K is that there are ALL kinds of runners. The speedy competitive runners, the middle of the pack runners like myself, and the back of the packers who are running to finish, no matter how long it takes. (Those men and ladies get mad props for getting out there!) Even with the half and full marathon there are a wide variety of runners, and I feel comfortable surrounded with "my people" in the back third of the pack. But the 10K? Looking at race results, it seems to be all serious runners. There are very, very few finish times coming in over an hour, which is a 10 minute mile pace. Now I can grit my teeth and keep that pace for a short while, but I can't sustain it for long. My comfortable pace for 6 miles is a 12 minute mile which puts me at the finish line at 1:12. Why am I having nightmares about pulling into the finish and finding janitorial staff sweeping up after the "real" runners who've already had their gatorade and snacks and gone home?