Arizona Roadracers Summer Race Series #1 - ran 18:15, 16th (or was it 15th) place overall, 3rd in my age division. This year was much more competitive than last year. More details to follow later. Have to take the boys now to the ward triathlon. OK, time for more details. The weather for the race was absolutely perfect, 59 degrees and cloudy. Warmed up with (and around) Lybi for 2 miles, did a few striders to get a feel for the pace I wanted to run. Because the park gates only opened at 6:30, they had a staggered start on this race, with a handicap assigned according to age and gender. Mine was supposed to be 13:58, however, due to crowding I didn't get to go until about 15 minutes after the start. Since the race was chip-timed, no big deal in terms of the time, but it left a LOT of slower runners in front of me. First mile: 5:59. This mile was the slowest of all my miles because I was having to constantly weave in and out of slower traffic that was taking up all the available space on the course. Sometimes I had to almost stop so that I could thread through a gap. Otherwise, the first mile felt pretty good. Second mile: 5:53. Still having to spend quite a bit of time weaving through slower traffic, and this mile also included the turnaround, which I hit in 19:15, but in general the course was clearer. Towards the end of this mile, I started to adopt the Sasha method of groaning/grunting as I was breathing out. Third mile: 5:50. Spent pretty much the entire mile grunting/groaning, legs were starting to burn, breathing was pretty taxed. I was still able to pass a few runners on this mile. Last 0.11 - 34 seconds. I was amazed that I had enough left in the tank to average 5:09 pace for the last .11. I was pretty dead tired when I finished, but got to see Lybi come in later and beat her time - hurray! I was also happy that cardio-wise, I seemed to recover pretty quickly - after about 3-4 minutes, I was pretty much back to normal. That speaks good things to me about my cardiovascular fitness. Since I haven't really done any speed workouts yet, and still don't intend to until I reach 50 miles/week, overall I am very happy with the result. Had there not been all the congestion in front of me, I would have been very close to breaking 18:00, and in any case, I PR'd by almost a minute from my last 5K. So silver goal achieved, no knee pain at all, just some tight and sore muscles in my hamstrings and calves. I will get Lybi to massage me later on. PM - ran 1 mile with Samuel, then 0.65 with Joey. Later on, ran 4 easy miles at 8:15 pace. Legs felt recovered, the run felt nice and easy. (ProGrid Guide - 109.3)
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