Thursday, March 25, 2010

10K Race Pictures and a Breakthrough

I don't run a ton of races just because I don't want to spend a ton of money each year, but over the past 30 years I've run my fairshare of them. This is the first time I've run a race where I've had more than three picture taken. I don't think I've ever taken so many bad pictures of myself in one 'sitting'. I really need to work on paying attention to where the cameras are.

For your viewing/laughing pleasure.....

brightroom event photography

Nothing to write home about - and there's nothing there that I want to buy - but I though I'd share them with you.

Yesterday's run I had to cut back to a 2.23 mile run because of time restrictions. (I had to pick Abby up from school.) After dropping Cade off at the in-laws I had about 30 mins of free time that I decided to use to sneek in a brief afternoon run. So I grabbed my iPod and had Bogey join me and headed out the door.



I thought I'd be more sore than I was due to my effort on Sunday - but that has seemed to have worn off now and I felt pretty good starting off. Four mins into the run I was just cruising and I was almost pulling Bogey along to keep pace. I've been flirting with a sub 9:00 min pace for about a month now (on a mulitple mile(s) run) and I could tell today was the day that I was going to breakthough this barrier - first mile in and I was at an 8:30 mile. The final 1.2 miles are all uphill but I thought I could hold on and gut one out so I could get my sub 20 mins on this run. Suprisingly the pain really didn't come on the hill and I finished the run pulling Bogey across the line in 19:12 or a 8:37 pace. (This marks the first time I've run this course at a sub 20 mins.)

I'm pleased and suprised to see such a big jump in pace improvement in such a short amount of time. I think I could have held this pace for another mile if the course had been flat. Could I really be getting close to a sub 27 min 5k? Shoot my PB is 28:04 right now - but my current pacing would suggest that I'm getting close. I think I might have to change my easy run pace down to 9:30-9:35 per mile down from 9:45-9:50, I'll see how I react to that pace later on in the week.

Final thought/gripe. I've mentioned above that I really don't do too many races (1-4 per year) but I have been racig for a while. Chip timing has to be the best improvement in racing for the back-of-the-packer since the invention of the wheel and I've run about 20 races using these chips but single-use chips? That's what I had for my last race. I'd like to think that us runners are a little more in-tune with waste and our enviroment to really condone this type of waste. What's wrong with the old reusuable chips? I have no problem waiting for a race helper to cut my chip off after a race. Wasting the zipties are bad enough but the whole chip? Has anyone else see this one-and-done chip before? Mine was made by ChampionChip and I'm not too sure if this is a trend or still uncommon. I asked the Race Director at the site if they were going to collect the chips and she said the company was supposed to have a truck - but it never showed (at least up to an hour after I had finished the race)

Keep Steppin'
Bob

3 comments:

teacherwoman said...

I didn't think your pics were bad! Geez!

Nice job on the run. You are sure becoming quite the speedster!

Tricia said...

I've seen the disposable chips popping up more and more lately.

Anne said...

Great job on the run!! That's fast :)