In an effort to ramp up my running for Dallas, I found this 15k on the Trinity Trails. While I have been aware of the Run Project Racing group I've never raced with them. Many of their races are themed and take place in / around Dallas. For whatever reason, none of their races have ever made it onto my schedule...until today.
My training continues to be lacking, but, my races have been good of late.
The weather turned cold overnight, and this morning was incredibly windy. When I parked at Panther Island Pavilion and got out of the jeep, I knew it would be a cold, windy day.
I walked into the pre-race festivities and wondered if I'd made a mistake by registering for this one. It was a little "too themed" for my liking.
The 10k and 15k were to start at 8, with the 5k starting at 8:30. I went to the starting line, stretched my calves / achilles a bit, and when Mayor Price sounded the airhorn, we were off.
I don't know that I had much of race plan for this one, but, I was curious if I could finish in under 1:30. My previous 15k PR was 1:32:04. The route took us out forest park, through some great neighborhoods around TCU and The Colonial, and, ultimately, dropped us onto the trail. It really was a great route. I shed my running gloves at about 2.5 miles and kept a steady pace of about 9:30 a mile throughout. I felt good and knew that a PR was in sight.
When we landed back on the trail, with a little over 3 miles to go, I knew I would try to pick up the pace near the end. As planned, I sped up at the 7 mile mark, and passed several runners. We hit a brutal headwind with about a mile and a half to go, but, I fought through it. I skipped the "spice zone" (area where you could have orange powder thrown on you - wtf?) and finished strong. 1:28:11. A new 15k PR by almost 4 minutes. I had a couple of beers at the post race event, and headed home. Not a bad day.
7th of 13 in my AG and 107 of 321 overall. A bit of a confidence builder heading into Dallas in a few weeks.
great!
ReplyDelete