I'll start us off early this week with a race report.
My lead up to the race was absolutely miserable. For the last 10 days I've been struggling to complete a run of any length. I've had 3 or 4, 4-mile days and only 2 runs of more than 6 miles. This week I took every other day off as a way to combat the sluggishness, soreness, and mental weakness I've been feeling.
So, I was pretty nervous going into the race. 2 weeks ago my confidence was sky high after some awesome workouts, but now, I thought I'd be happy with 7:30s.
It was a tough course. Rolling hills. Downhill (mostly) on pavement for the first mile. Rolling hills on a cross country ski trail for the second mile which turned out to also be rather soft. And back uphill (mostly) on the third mile.
Splits were: 7:07, 7:29, 7:02, + for a 22:30. 22 seconds short of my PR set last year. Second place of 29 in 50-59 age group. Yo'Yo'd pace throughout the race as I was over threshold at several points due to the hills. Strava says at times I was running 6:30 and at other times 7:50.
Overall. I was very pleased. I held it together mentally over the last 1.3 when I hit max heart rate and needed to manage myself over the duration.
Incredibly, a 9 year old girl ran 21:47 to win the women's race. And a 10 year old boy out sprinted me for 13th overall. But, I totally dusted his two 10 year old buddies in the last mile. Seriously, very humbling.
Wife took 1st in 40-49 category with 23:45.
We know, pretty low on the competition scale. But still fun to get a placement medal.
Ken