April 5

It's been a while!  This is a race report for Harry's Spring Run Off 8k.

As usual, I had a terrible night's sleep.  I didn't have to leave early in the morning though.  The race was at 10:am.   Left at just after 8.  I was going to ride my bike but the gusts of wind were into the 50k range.  Rained all day Friday before the race and all night.  So the morning was cold and windy.  Most of my worry was getting the wardrobe right.  I didn't want to be too warm during the race or too cold before the race.  Ran in fleece pants, race long john top and long sleeve shirt with hat and gloves which came off at about 5k so I got the wardrobe right.

I haven't been on a plan for this race nor have I been logging my workouts (more later) so for a willy-nilly lead up I was very pleased with the result.  There are 2 bitches of hills on the course and wasn't really sure how to race them.  I've been practicing running downhill and passed lots of people on the big downhills only a few of whom were able to pass me back on the flat(ish) parts.  I was unable to pace with my watch because it ran out of batteries while I was waiting to start.  Curses.  Also my damn HR monitor messed up somehow and couldn't get a real read for a kilometre or 2.  I was trying to get a maximum HR read so that pissed me off.  I had regular looks at the monitor after that and I didn't see it get below 72 so I'm going to call that my max. HR!

I felt pretty strong through out the race.  I decided not to wear iPod.  I'm glad.  You really need to listen to the runners around you and running traffic etc.  The race starts in "corrals" with each corral holding the self seeded runners.  I self seeded at 31-39 minutes and was in the first corral.  Consequently, I didn't have much traffic trouble with other racers.  I was second guessing my finish time at the start because I was unsure of the hills.  I don't have detailed data for the race but:

overall          clock time                pace                real time                #                     men                              age group 

125   35:29.7  4:27   35:18.9  834  108/1043  17/116  Men 45 - 49   

So I hit my target time and felt pretty decent at the end.  The end hill IS a bitch.

Plans for tri season to follow.