Love, love, loved this race! If my schedule allowed and I had gotten in on the lower pricing for the Conroe and College Station races, I would so be doing those. Next year I can plan accordingly.
First off I love the 10 mile distance. Love. And this race had about 750 for the 10 mile distance...not sure on the 5 mile distance. I do know that based on the email we got for reasons behind the delay in results, apparently a lot of people changed their mind mid-race and finished 5 instead of 10, and to complicate it even more, ran to the 5 mile split timing mat and THEN decided to run to the finish. You should have just run to the finish you dorks. Now you ran 5 miles plus, and you got a wonky race time. Oy.
Anyway, I loved it. Will DEFINITELY do this series from this point forward.
1:53:03
11:18 pace
goal was 1:56
11:36 pace
390 out of 750
16 out of 30 age
Warm, muggy, drizzling rain. Windy from the north; not too much of a factor on this 2 loop course
Given how warm it was, I was quite pleased with this outcome. Generally I would have probably caved but I felt ready to push it and not give in to my thought demons.
I also thought I was going to hate the 2 loops thing, but surprisingly enough when I started that 2nd loop I was thankful for having done it once already and I knew where my water was, where the turns were and when there was a weird run one way for like 100m and then do a hairpin turn and go back to the original course (guess they had to get the 5 miles somehow!)
I am not able to get a screenshot from my GarminConnect account, but here are the general stats I look at; or rather STARTING to look at again...to once again move myself forward after losing a lot of fitness for various reasons.
Avg HR 162
Max 178
For reference, I try and train in the low to upper 150's
Avg Run Cadence: 164
Max Run Cadence: 186
Stride Length .87 This lengthens as I go faster for example, in the final stretch it was .90 but in some of my slower miles, it was low .80s
I am also slowly starting to eliminate the walk 1 min of my 4/1's. I slow down during the walk interval, but not walking.
On this date, the last half of the race I all but eliminated the walk breaks. There were a couple, but on the first half, I kept them intact.
My running pace averages between 9 and 10:20, with my fastest on this date to be 8:38. What I need to do is slow down the running pace of those 4 min stretches, eliminate the walk break and I think my mile splits would be around 10:30 if I can just get the sweet spot.
I will be trying to do that at the upcoming Thanksgiving Day 10K.
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As mentioned I am working my way back to my best running self. I don't know what that looks like yet, but I know I lost it and even in the first 6-8 months of being back in Texas I couldn't seem to find it. Failed attempts at new running group(s) etc..and I just lost mojo. With all my new technology though and a like-minded competitive spirit partner/animal, I have found zest again in running. The data crunching has made a return and its awesome. My spirit partner/animal is helping me with that as well.
