The half is really a nice distance, long enough to garner a sense of accomplishment, but not so long that you have to walk down the stairs backwards all week afterwards. (But who really wants to say they ran a half anything?)
Anyway, this was my first road race in almost a year. A chance to see if I had any foot speed left after generally running long slow miles on trail for most of 2010.
To make a long story short, it was terrible. I took off at a ridiculous pace, and then just tried not to blow up the rest of the race.
Fiddlers of Men: pre-race preparations
Mr. Zurhellen looking pensive before the gun
Despite a mentally and physically exhausting first ten miles ( EX. going out too hard, mistakenly turning at the 10k half-way point, and dropping my GU packet in the dirt), The last three were great. No one was threatening to pass me and I wasn't going to set a personal record, so I just changed settings to cruise control.
A distracted finish at best
Maybe the race didn't go exactly as I'd hoped, but it was still an excellent day. I spent the last few miles of the race being mindful of how lucky I am to have my health and so many good people in my life (as well as day dreaming about post-race beverages).
Cody would go on to finish the half in 1hr45min,
a solid race as he works up to the Knoxville Marathon
a solid race as he works up to the Knoxville Marathon
Yesterday's race was an interesting challenge, but it very well may be another year before I decide to run a road race again.
Numbers are Fun:
Mile 1 ----5:34 (Effectively ensuring myself a miserable race)
Mile 3-----17:52 5:57 Pace
Mile 6-----37:03
Mile 10---1:02:30 6:15 Pace
Finish-----1:24:30 6:28 cumulative race pace (7:05 pace for the last 3.1mi)
Placement: 10th overall (out of 300), 1st in Age Group (25-29)
No comments:
Post a Comment