Today I ran the Park to Park 10 Mile Race.
This is the first year of the race, so you are never quite sure of what you are going to get. I made sure I had my own drink (and enough of it so that I wouldn't need anything else) and a post race snack.
This race was unusual for me. Usually I go into a race after a taper and looking for a new PR. This time it was different. I had no taper other than skipping Sunday's 30 minutes of easy cross training. I actually ran 13 miles on Saturday for my long run. I had a non-official time PR time of 1:31 that I was NOT going to try to beat.
My goal was to run this race as a training run and to see how my planned marathon pace felt.
All in all, a lot of credit goes to the people who planned this race. It started on time, the course was handled well, markers were in place, and aid stations were where they were promised. The food afterward was excellent!
All in all, I am looking forward to running this race again.
My official time was 1:37:00, BTW. That reflected a perfect 9:31 average pace--my target marathon pace.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Thursday's Magical Mile
Every year in my summer running program there is a point in the program where you are encouraged to run 1 mile all out.
If you want an actual race, they encourage you to run the Pearl Street Mile up in Boulder. I really don't ever feel like driving for an hour in rush hour traffic for a 1 mile race, so I run the mile down by me.
Last year I had no concept of how fast I could run, I went out to a trail and ran my mile in 8:17.
This year I went out to the local middle school track for the mile. I tried to push out any ideas of how fast I was supposed to go. I ran my warm up, stretched and even ran a few strides. I hate strides, but they say they help, so I did them, probably much to the amusement of the moms of the local football team.
I started my run. I have a real issue with running the first part of any speed work too fast, and it happened here too. I did manage to slow it down a bit, but was quickly running myself into an oxygen hole. I reminded myself to breathe deep. I swung my arms and reminded myself that I only had to do 1 mile. I gasped for breath like a landed fish. I ran hard until I heard my Garmin beep.
I looked down--7:33!
P.S. It took 2 days for my throat to stop hurting.
If you want an actual race, they encourage you to run the Pearl Street Mile up in Boulder. I really don't ever feel like driving for an hour in rush hour traffic for a 1 mile race, so I run the mile down by me.
Last year I had no concept of how fast I could run, I went out to a trail and ran my mile in 8:17.
This year I went out to the local middle school track for the mile. I tried to push out any ideas of how fast I was supposed to go. I ran my warm up, stretched and even ran a few strides. I hate strides, but they say they help, so I did them, probably much to the amusement of the moms of the local football team.
I started my run. I have a real issue with running the first part of any speed work too fast, and it happened here too. I did manage to slow it down a bit, but was quickly running myself into an oxygen hole. I reminded myself to breathe deep. I swung my arms and reminded myself that I only had to do 1 mile. I gasped for breath like a landed fish. I ran hard until I heard my Garmin beep.
I looked down--7:33!
P.S. It took 2 days for my throat to stop hurting.
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