This race was in Decatur, AL and started at the First Baptist church on Church Street.
It was cold. It was 30-32 at the start of the race which was 8am. The wind chill had to be close to 20 (I'm guessing, I have no idea). On top of that we had a snow fall during the night of about 1 inch. Not much on the roadways, just on the bridges. There was one accident on the bridge going into Decatur. I was worried for a minute that I was going to make it by race time. Anyways,
IT WAS COLD.
The race started quickly for me. I've started all my races too fast but this one was faster than the others. I knew it was too fast and I was telling myself to calm down and slow down. I did an OK job of getting under control but I might have put out too much (and paid for it later in the race).
Here are my splits:
- 6:59 (my fastest mile to date)
- 7:40
- 8:27 (23:07)
As you can see that is way to inconsistent. The first mile was too fast and the 2nd mile was too slow. I was hoping to be a more consistent 7:30 but it didn't work that way. I've got to figure out how to have more consistent times.
I did have my best time yet of
23:07 but I feel I could have done better. The last couple of weeks my eating habits have been poor. My training has been steady. I did miss a couple days last week but I've staid with my schedule.
During the first 1.5 miles I was right with one man. He had a good steady pace and good breathing habits. I was wanting to stay with him but there was this one pretty good hill. That hill just beat me down. About this same time a lady passed us both by. She must have done a better job of holding back on the first mile because she just went past me and kept going. After this hill I just didn't feel good the rest of the way. That man left me behind and I couldn't keep up.
Coming up to the finish line is an uphill. The uphill is probably 500 yards and just before the finish it flattens out for about 75 yards. As I was getting close to the finish I saw 22 on the clock and thought if I could just kick a bit I would have a sub-23. I didn't have it. If coming up to the finish there wasn't that hill I might could have but the race isn't laid out the way I want.
Recently my training has begun to bore me just a bit. I'm not sure what I need to do to get it going in the right direction again. I might have to start carrying a music player (which I have staid away from purposely). The schedule I've been following has mostly the same runs during each week for several weeks. I probably need to find a schedule that has more variety.
Anyways, the race time for today was better than the last. Good for me. I'm hoping to keep improving.
I didn't stay around for race results (way too cold to hang around). I hope they will be posted later today (
Decatur Track Club).
Race Results to date:
