Race Results

Today's race did not go as planned.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I had some foot pain yesterday, so I was concerned about that.  It really didn't bother me.  here's the recap.

I got up this morning, got ready and could feel a bit of soreness so I took some ibuprofen.  Finished getting ready and made some green tea. We arrived at the school and got my race packet.  The t-shirt was black cotton with yellow writing.  Not really a good one to run in but oh well.  I didn't put it on by the way, wore a white tech shirt.

I said by to Jen and Connor and did some stretching of my legs.  The race started out on a track so we headed over to the other side while Jen and Connor hit the bleachers.

The gun went off and I started out cautious. It was one loop around the track then off through some fairly high grass. When we hit the grass I decided to speed it up as my feet were feeling fine.  About 200 yards through the grass and we hit a steep down and up across a ravine, came out to a residential street. I was feeling good, hot but good.  As I approached the 1 mile mark, I realized I was going too fast.  I hit one mile in 9:11, about 44 seconds faster than my normal pace.

Then right after the mark, the road began a nearly mile long up hill.  I was pushing it really starting to feel the heat (about 85 degrees at this point)  and sweating buckets.  Good thing I had my Nuun filled water bottle!

On the turn around loop I had to stop and walk a bit.  But started back up, but after hitting the 2 mile mark (10:44) I knew I was worn out.  The last 1.1 miles was a struggle.  Several small hills, the ravine, which was about 40 degree incline down then back up, through the tall grass which by this point felt like quick sand (the guy beside me made that observation), then a final lap around the track.

I knew the last 1.1 was going to suck because I struggled so much but at 13:24 all I can say is that it REALLY sucked.  I was hot, worn out, and just wanted it to be done.

Final time was 33:21.  A good minute faster than my last race, but nowhere near what I'm capable of.  Still it was a PR, so I'll take it.

After recovering and thinking about it.  I think the downfall was that I started too fast.  Had I not pushed myself too much at the beginning, then taken the long hill steadily, I probably could have held out for the last third.  It did have some good downhills and had I not been worn out.  I probably could have coasted through them and finished much better. 

So the take away lessons, be prepared for hills (I need to find a more hilly route), watch my speed at the begining, and now that summers hit look for runs that start earlier.

Now to take a nap, then later find a race for next week so that I can put this one behind me.

Pictures to come once Jen gets them on her computer.