Nicole
I didn’t think I’d be racing much this year, but living in a sport-filled community, there are tons of options and sometimes it’s nice to pop into a race for fun and a bit of a fitness test. Although I wasn’t the most rested going into this race (put in 44 miles on the bike with some hills and hammered a bit the day before) and I had two back-to-back weekend of mountain bike racing prior, I headed down to the Father’s Day 8k put on by Leave Your Mark Events to see what I could do. It would be about the right distance for a field test to estimate my threshold pace and heart rate.
I headed down to Memorial Park, and got there plenty early as I had hadn’t yet registered. It took me awhile to find the registration, and I wasn’t the only confused one. The park was the location of a local weekend showcase called “Springs Spree,” and there were amusement park rides and booths set up everywhere. But finally we were pointed in the right direction and found the registration table. The finish line was nicely set-up, and even included a banner for my coaching business. Once registered my pre-race ritual (sort-of) begun. I wanted to get warmed up, and was feeling my legs from the previous “efforts” I had put them through in the past few weeks. The temperature was also starting to rise – it was going to be a day in the 90s, and with the strong sun at altitude, it just beats on you. I did a few dynamic warm-ups and got to a comfortable place, just hoping my legs would hang in there.
At few minutes after 8am the race began. I’ve never run an 8k before, and I had an idea of a pace I wanted to maintain, but also just wanted to run fast. So, I went hard and tried to hold on. The course consisted of two laps of Prospect lake and then two laps of another section of the park. Some of it was on concrete, some grass, some asphalt. Overall pretty flat, but a couple “uphill” sections were noticeable! I can also tell all the strength work I am doing at MotionX Studio is helping!
I didn’t negative split this race, which means I started a little too fast. Although on fresher legs I might have been able to maintain my initial mile pace. But based on my heart rate, I’d say I was giving a solid effort – average of 177bpm, maxing out in the 180s.
The field was small and there was only one woman in front of me, so I tried to keep her in sight. It helped that she was wearing a bright pink shirt. Overall I held my place pretty well, once the field sorted itself out in the first half-mile, I passed a few people and then only got passed by a couple guys towards the end. I finished in 42:12, although my GPS measurement has 5.22miles when an 8k would be about 5 miles. I ended up the 2nd place female overall.
At the finish they had trail mix with M&Ms (chocolate!) and coconut water, which has some carbs and electrolytes to help rehydrate, and also regular water. I was pretty thirsty and even hungry despite the heat. I hung around for a little bit and refueled, but couldn’t stay for the awards as I had to go meet my parents for a father’s day 3rd Sunday Adventure hike at Stratton Open Space sponsored by UpaDowna. We learned about geocaching on this hike – very cool! But very hot out so we only went 2.5 miles. Garmin data. Then we went for frozen yogurt, a much welcomed treat!
Nicole
