1 Race down 2 to go! Last night was the first part of my 24 hour race series this weekend. I haven't raced in 2 MONTHS so it felt to get out there again, I feel like I will have gotten my racing quota in once this weekend is over.
This first race was a 4 miler scheduled for 7:30pm, at the beach. I have only run on the beach once, and it was so much better than I had expected that I wasn't super worried about this race. John went with me out to Jax beach, and I did a 2 miles warm-up.
While it was warm, it was not nearly as hot as I expected since some early afternoon rain had cooled it off a tad and left us with some clouds and a nice breeze :)
The 4Miler would be based off of gun time, not chip time since they didn't want to lug all the mats out onto the sand, so I squished as far forward as I could, and only ended up with a 3 second difference between my Garmin and the clock, I thought I did pretty good. The course was 2 miles out, 2 miles back which was great because for most of the middle you always have someone running opposite you.
I have never done a 4 mile race, so a guaranteed PR was there, but I wanted to finish at 35 minutes, that would be an 8:45 average pace. So I started a little fast (what else is new) but was able to pull it back under control and stay focused, after all I have 2 more races, and hopefully 2 more PR's to hit today.
Mile 1- 8:43
I was pleasantly surprised how much the softer surface helped my legs, they felt great the whole time, I should probably consider running on the sand more often, except its messy. At about mile 1.4 the leaders flew by, and gave me a nice push of adreneline to make sure I was keeping my pace where it needed to be. They had the water station set-up right at the turn-around point making for a HUGE mess and some serious slow-downs, I ended up running wide just to try and avoid it- no such luck, it hurt my pace a little, but still hit where I needed to be.
Mile 2- 8:45
I told myself mile 3 should be right at 8:45 pace, I needed to hold back a bit here to make sure I had enough to finish strong. This mile ended up being my fastest to that point, it just started to come more naturally, and I was thinking about all the people still going out that I was passing and what were they out there running for. Before I knew it, we were on to mile 4.
Mile 3- 8:38
From mile 3-3.5 I started to tire a little bit, my lungs were starting to talk about how done they were, and the finish seemed quite far away. However my pace was looking good, so I just reminded myself a mile was nothing compared to what I have been doing, and I started to pick people off. It was pretty easy, and I passed 6 people before finally catching sight of the finish line, and my final victim. I pick people usually based on clothes, something bright or noticeable, and tonight it was pink skirt girl. I was a bit behind her and managed to catch her as Garmin beeped at 4 miles
Mile 4- 8:27
The course was long, big suprise! If it had been right on, I would have finished in 34:35,(8:38 pace) oh well, such is life.
Pink skirt obviously saw that I was trying to pass her and she tried to push ahead, we got to the point where she and I changed the lead at least 6 times. In the end I think she beat me by about 3 seconds, oh well, she definitely made me run faster :)
.1 - 43 seconds (7:07 pace) really???
4.1 Miles- 35:18, avg pace 8:36
So my final finish time was 35:18, a little over what I wanted, but not bad considering the long course, and something I think I can beat with my next 4 miler (Sept. 18th) especially since I won't be holding back either.
After the race, we immediately headed home where I stretched, rolled, iced, and could not sleep- SO unlike me! I woke up this morning to suprisingly fresh seeming legs, we will see.
Now I am off for the 5k- probably what will be the toughest part- I am REALLY wanting a PR here, so we will see if it's possible on a 12 hour turn around.
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