Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Beat the Bridge Race Report
I am happy to report that I did indeed beat the bridge. I finished the 8 kilometer (just under 5 mile) race in 45:20. This was an excellent time for me as my goal going into the race was to beat 50:00.
There were over 9000 runners in this race, taking off in 3 waves. By far, my wave was the largest with probably 4500 runners in it. I did not want to be caught behind walkers or runners that were likely to not beat the bridge, so I lined up at the front of the pack. When the horn sounded, I went out faster than I had originally intended. I was using my heart rate monitor to guage my level of effort, and had planned on shooting for about 165 beats per minute for the race. I started out much higher than that, and about 1 minute into the race, my HRM was reading 172. Even though I was going faster than I had planned, I was feeling good and thought I'd put some time in the bank while I was still feeling good. I finished the first mile in 8:34, which is probably the fastest I've ever done a competitive mile.
My second mile was my slowest, with a fair number of hills and the bridge coming in this section of the race. I kept up the higher heart rate, but finished this mile in 9:57. I had originally planned to take the 3rd mile easy, but since I was still doing well at an HR around 170, I kept up my faster pace and finished the next 2 miles in 9:28 and 8:24. The last mile I started getting pretty ragged. I hardly had any energy left when we turned the corner and entered Husky Stadium for the finish. The last 50 yards of the race were on the astroturf. My final kick was from the endzone to the 50 yard line where the finish line was. Not much of a kick, but I can honestly say I didn't leave much in the tank. When I checked out the watch, I had run a 9:07 pace, with an average heart rate of 173. My HR maxed out at 185. I would guess that I ran 80%+ of this race anaerobically, which is way better than I thought I could.
I'd have to say that I'm very pleased with my results, and look forward to my next race. What that race will be I have not decided.
There were over 9000 runners in this race, taking off in 3 waves. By far, my wave was the largest with probably 4500 runners in it. I did not want to be caught behind walkers or runners that were likely to not beat the bridge, so I lined up at the front of the pack. When the horn sounded, I went out faster than I had originally intended. I was using my heart rate monitor to guage my level of effort, and had planned on shooting for about 165 beats per minute for the race. I started out much higher than that, and about 1 minute into the race, my HRM was reading 172. Even though I was going faster than I had planned, I was feeling good and thought I'd put some time in the bank while I was still feeling good. I finished the first mile in 8:34, which is probably the fastest I've ever done a competitive mile.
My second mile was my slowest, with a fair number of hills and the bridge coming in this section of the race. I kept up the higher heart rate, but finished this mile in 9:57. I had originally planned to take the 3rd mile easy, but since I was still doing well at an HR around 170, I kept up my faster pace and finished the next 2 miles in 9:28 and 8:24. The last mile I started getting pretty ragged. I hardly had any energy left when we turned the corner and entered Husky Stadium for the finish. The last 50 yards of the race were on the astroturf. My final kick was from the endzone to the 50 yard line where the finish line was. Not much of a kick, but I can honestly say I didn't leave much in the tank. When I checked out the watch, I had run a 9:07 pace, with an average heart rate of 173. My HR maxed out at 185. I would guess that I ran 80%+ of this race anaerobically, which is way better than I thought I could.
I'd have to say that I'm very pleased with my results, and look forward to my next race. What that race will be I have not decided.
// posted by Bill @ 5:44 PM 
