I did not have high hopes for this race. Well, I take that back... leading up to the race, I thought I could be in a pretty good position for something close to a PR because of recent speedwork focus. However, this week I've come down with some kind of sinusy/congestion funk that peaked in its severity the morning of the race. I did NOT feel like putting forth a race effort. I thought of just making it a slow jog and forgetting "racing" altogether. All of this is compounded by the fact that the early race start (6:16 a.m.) requires a 4:30 a.m. alarm. Oooof.
I got there in plenty of time, picked up my bib and such, and hung around with friends until the start.
 |
| Team Milliken! |
Of course once the start gun goes off, the race mentality takes over and I just went for it. I actually felt better when I was running (congestion-wise) so I figured I'd see what I could do. I felt very strong for the first few miles. Felt like I was in a good stride and rhythm, fell into a solid pace pretty easily. Somewhere in the middle of mile 4 I started to feel the efforts take their toll and knew I was slowing down a little. I wanted to be able to save enough for a final push once I was in reasonable sight of the finish line.
 |
| Hmm... elevation might have had something to do with it! |
Yep, elevation gain in the 4th mile was probably the culprit of feeling more tired. Still, had enough for the final push to make it my fastest mile overall and ended up with a pretty great time.
Result: 36:33 (avg 7:22/mi)
Not a PR (35:18) but my second fastest 8k! Plus it was good enough for a 1st AG finish...
Woohoo!
 |
| Did I mention it was humid? |
No comments:
Post a Comment