Pre-Race
One of the few races out there in which you can actually sleep off the previous day's happy hour before having to think about this race. It starts at 10:00am I woke up at 6:30am and fixed myself a couple eggs for breakfast. I should have eaten a banana with it.I will say that regardless of the start time you should always set out your race gear the previous day. I did have the foresight to charge my FR405cx the night before and make sure my clothes were clean. However there was no painstakingly laid out clothes, pre-attached bib to race belt, timing chip attached to the shoe, etc. The chances of this biting me in the ass? HIGH. I started getting everything assembled when it was time for the bib. I dump out the packet pickup bag. I soon realized my bib was not in the bag. I know I picked it up because I looked at it yesterday to see that the timing chip was one that did not need to be affixed to the shoe. So double whammy... no bib and no timed race!
I retraced my tracks to find it in the door pocket of the truck. Whew!!
 |
| Dramatization: Not the real bib. |
I struggled with clothing. The temps were upper 30s when I got up but they did increase to mid-40s by departure time. I elected for compression shirt, sleeveless tech shirt and running shorts. I almost put on running tights and glad I didn't.
I filled up my water bottle and off we went. Arrived around 9:30am to meet up with Danny and Joe VI in front of Kelly's at Westport.
Race
I had hopes of hitting a 28:00 minute race when I digitally inked this on the blog's "2011 Race" list but didn't have the training plan geared for that (will work on that for Trolly Run). Instead, I resolved to just beat my Personal Record (PR) and going sub-30.
1st Mile - 7:23 pace: The start was just like any start. A bunch of humanity jockeying for position. It took a good half mile to get in open space but I also started too fast because of it. That's OK because I had a wardrobe malfunction 1 mile in. My left shoe lace came untied.
The first mile has a nice "dip" (.4 mile 70 foot decline and then incline in elevation). With this and my fast start, it impacted my split and probably the overall race. I at least waited for the top of the hill to tie the shoelace and got a 10 second breather.
2nd Mile - 7:17 pace: This was mostly downhill except the end. I quickly realized that I left most of the water inside of the bottle that I filled prior to leaving for the race. Oops. I was getting dehydrated.
Secondly, I need to do a better job with my Heart Rate Monitor strap. About this time in the race it had fallen down to a few inches above my tummy-port. The compression shirt was making it difficult to adjust back up. With pushing myself pretty hard, lack of water, and the HRM, I think it caused my stomach to start bugging me.
3rd Mile - 7:43 pace: The only aid station was at the beginning of mile 3. I did walk through it and take in some water. This mile is mostly up hill. So with the aid station and the hill, my time suffered.
4th Mile - 7:11 pace: Elevation was pretty level with the last 1/3 down hill. Knowing it was the last mile had me kick it up a little. HTFU is the term, but I probably half-assed that.
Total: 29:40 (from my Garmin) / 7:25 pace
Post-Race
Multi-grain rolls, bananas, apples, oranges, yogurt (apple cobbler), water, and chocolate milk. They may have had some Krispy Kreme's but I think we got there too late. I was ready to down 3 or 6 at a time ;).
There were 3 or 4 tables lined up with the food. The table I went through had Apple Cobbler yogurt. Interesting but it seemed overly sugary.
Overall
Overall I was quite pleased with the race. I PR'd and hit sub-30. I need to do some better pre-race hydration (never had an issue with this before -- I think I got a little cocky).
Chip: 29:41
AG: 60 / 308
Overall: 256 / 3228
The Evidence
 |
| Today's Running Crew: Joe VI, Me, Danny |
 |
| Me |
 |
| Danny |
 |
| Joe VI |
 |
| Random: Hardcore Green -- Plus he was wearing Vibrams. |
 |
| Random: Oscar! |
 |
| Random: Some interesting scenery around Westport |
Great post! Good job on your race!! It bugs me when little things add up in a race to change the overall feel. I think that you did a great job maintaining your composure! Nice job!
ReplyDeleteThanks RunnerGirl! I knew going into this race I wasn't going to meet my initial goal of a 28-min pace due to lack of training, so I went into to have fun and not let the bad things get me. Just another exercise of lessons learned!
ReplyDelete