P
Phil M.
Guest
Race: Sandy Springs Lightning 10K
Location: Sandy Springs, GA
Date/Time: Saturday, September 18, 2004. 7:30 AM
Benefit: Williams Payne Museum
Weather: sunny, 62° F, 88% humidity
This is the final tune-up race in the marathon plan that I'm following.
One thing about these tune-up races is that since they are in the middle
of marathon training, there is little if any taper. I did an easy 7 on
Thursday and an easy 5 on Friday. I'm doing 19 miles on Sunday. Then the
3-week taper begins.
After tropical storm Ivan passed through on Thursday it was quite a
relief to see the sunshine at the start of this race. The race was in
Sandy Springs GA, a suburb on the north side of Atlanta. The race is
USATF certified. The race director calls it "mostly flat." IMO there were
very few flat portions. I grew up in Illinois so I am somewhat of an
expert on flat. Anyway, for Atlanta it was "reasonably" flat. The weather
was perfect-low 60s with no noticeable wind.
I haven't been sleeping well for the past week and the night before the
race was no exception. Several times I considered not doing the race. At
any rate, I decided I would at least go through the motions of laying my
stuff out, planning a time to leave and checking on the map to get there.
Even on the drive there I found myself thinking that I might be late and
not have to run this race. I made it there with time to spare and before
I knew it I was at the starting line with 1,000 other runners.
The race is an out and back course. It starts fairly flat then quickly
starts a 1 to 2% downhill grade (just guessing since I didn't wear my
Forerunner). There is a steeper downhill to the turnaround point, then
the race heads back uphill. This you can see by my mile times with the
abrupt slow down on the 4th and 5th mile. Normally I am able to pick up
the pace after the 5th mile, but I just couldn't talk myself into pushing
it faster. Maybe my brain is what needed the sleep, more than my body. I
finished in 42:34 and placed 52 out of 1,000+ runners.
Here are my mile times and average heart rate for each mile along with
the change in HR from my last 10K:
Mi Time HR
1 6:46 140 -10
2 6:45 153 -4
3 6:42 154 -7
4 7:07 156 -3
5 6:54 159 -3
6.2 8:18 159 -6
I compared this to my last 10K 4 weeks ago in which I finished in 42:32.
I found it interesting that my average heart rate was less for every
mile, but the result was virtually the same. So even though I didn't get
a PR, I feel that I could have easily done much better if I had the
motivation to push it just a little during the last 2 miles.
One of these days I'm going ot finish a race and be able to say I gave it
100%. Has anyone (besides Steve Prefontaine) ever done this? ;-)
Thanks for reading. Next stop: 10/10/04, Steamtown Marathon, Scranton PA
Phil M.
--
"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make
them all yourself." Martin Vanbee
Location: Sandy Springs, GA
Date/Time: Saturday, September 18, 2004. 7:30 AM
Benefit: Williams Payne Museum
Weather: sunny, 62° F, 88% humidity
This is the final tune-up race in the marathon plan that I'm following.
One thing about these tune-up races is that since they are in the middle
of marathon training, there is little if any taper. I did an easy 7 on
Thursday and an easy 5 on Friday. I'm doing 19 miles on Sunday. Then the
3-week taper begins.
After tropical storm Ivan passed through on Thursday it was quite a
relief to see the sunshine at the start of this race. The race was in
Sandy Springs GA, a suburb on the north side of Atlanta. The race is
USATF certified. The race director calls it "mostly flat." IMO there were
very few flat portions. I grew up in Illinois so I am somewhat of an
expert on flat. Anyway, for Atlanta it was "reasonably" flat. The weather
was perfect-low 60s with no noticeable wind.
I haven't been sleeping well for the past week and the night before the
race was no exception. Several times I considered not doing the race. At
any rate, I decided I would at least go through the motions of laying my
stuff out, planning a time to leave and checking on the map to get there.
Even on the drive there I found myself thinking that I might be late and
not have to run this race. I made it there with time to spare and before
I knew it I was at the starting line with 1,000 other runners.
The race is an out and back course. It starts fairly flat then quickly
starts a 1 to 2% downhill grade (just guessing since I didn't wear my
Forerunner). There is a steeper downhill to the turnaround point, then
the race heads back uphill. This you can see by my mile times with the
abrupt slow down on the 4th and 5th mile. Normally I am able to pick up
the pace after the 5th mile, but I just couldn't talk myself into pushing
it faster. Maybe my brain is what needed the sleep, more than my body. I
finished in 42:34 and placed 52 out of 1,000+ runners.
Here are my mile times and average heart rate for each mile along with
the change in HR from my last 10K:
Mi Time HR
1 6:46 140 -10
2 6:45 153 -4
3 6:42 154 -7
4 7:07 156 -3
5 6:54 159 -3
6.2 8:18 159 -6
I compared this to my last 10K 4 weeks ago in which I finished in 42:32.
I found it interesting that my average heart rate was less for every
mile, but the result was virtually the same. So even though I didn't get
a PR, I feel that I could have easily done much better if I had the
motivation to push it just a little during the last 2 miles.
One of these days I'm going ot finish a race and be able to say I gave it
100%. Has anyone (besides Steve Prefontaine) ever done this? ;-)
Thanks for reading. Next stop: 10/10/04, Steamtown Marathon, Scranton PA
Phil M.
--
"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make
them all yourself." Martin Vanbee