All you can eat Stec

I ran the 15TH ANNUAL NORTHWEST CROSS COUNTRY CLASSIC yesterday for my birthday.  First of all, here are the stats:
Time: 22:47
Avg Pace:  7:20
Avg Speed: 8.3 mph
Max Speed: 13.1 MPH (at the end)
Avg Heart Rate: 166
Max Heart Rate: 185
Mile 1:  6:30
Mile 2:  7:31
Mile 3:  7:41
Last .12:  6:24/mi pace

I ran it with Travis (my younger brother) and my mom.  My goal was to come as close as I could to Travis and possibly give him a run for his money.  I don’t get the opportunity to run with him since he lives in Seattle, so I decided to base my pace on what he was doing.

It was also my 30th birthday and I’ve been specifically training for the 5k for a few months so I wanted to get a pretty good time.

Oh, and the race had a bit of a decent hill that you went up three times, which haven’t been on my other 5k courses I’ve ran this year.  I feel I’m pretty good at hills but it could hurt my on my goal of hitting my PR.
So the race started out and, of course, the pace was incredibly fast.  Travis was weaving in and out of people, and I was only a few steps behind.  We rifled up the first hill and I made up some good ground.  A quarter mile later, I really could feel it.  I knew I couldn’t keep at that pace for long.  A quick glance at my watch and it showed me going 6:10/mi!  Ouch!  Thats faster than my 400 meter interval time lol.  I had to let Travis go and maintain a 6:45-7:00 pace.

I was doing pretty good for the first mile, and then we came around and had to go up that hill again.  That made me really feel it.  A minute or two after that hill I began to ponder why I was even doing this.  I should be relaxing on my birthday! 

And just as I started to get into a rhythm again, up the hill again.  The last mile was brutal.  My entire body was burning.

As I approached the finish and went around the track to finish the race, I really felt like I had nothing left. I was pushing it hard but looking back I was really running on my heels.

At the 20 meters this young kid I had passed earlier that mile was sprinting passed me.

As soon as I noticed it I leaped into a full sprint and BARELY beat him.

Although I didn’t beat my brother, and I didn’t get a PR - I did have a lot of fun and came back with some more motivation.  I once again learned the lesson of starting out too fast.   I loved being out there with the family - It was really cool to see my mom run the race and push herself.  I loved cheering her on.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 at 5:53 pm and is filed under Race Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.