Rocky's Run

Today was a fun day.  For the 5th straight year I raced Rockys Run CC 6k.  It's the one time every year that I get to don my cross country spikes and have at it on the hills and turns of Les Bolstad Gold Course.  It starts out as a drag race, with first quarter-mile being straight, flat and fast.  Once we get past the driving range fence, the real "fun" begins!  Up and down, twisty-turny, back and forth and up and down some more.  None of the hills are big, but they are relentless.  Even though I went out too fast, the first mile seemed to take forever.  It was a pretty zippy 6:03, but I wouldn't see even close to that pace for the remainder of the race.  I was feeling pretty gassed for mile 2, so I settled into a comfortable pace, going easy up the hills and coasting down the other side.  Mile 2 was a much slower 6:25.  I continued to pass people, so maintained the same pace, keeping my strategy on the hills.  I think they redesigned the course, because it seemed much hillier than I remember.  Mile 3 was another modest 6:30.  The last .7 miles were tough, but I was still passing a few people, then there the the much welcome 500 meter finish, which is straight and a little bit downhill.  Legs were pretty rubbery by the end, but was content with my 23:59 finish.  Good enough for a 2nd place AG place and securing a 1st place finish in my AG for the MDRA Grand Prix series of races.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful.  I only ran 30 miles all week, including this race and a Thursday  night track work out.  Meet of the Miles is mid January, so I will start traing for that this next week.  Probably ramp up to 40 or 50 MPW, with a couple of track workouts, a long run and some conditioning at the gym.

Happy Running!

Rick

State of Road Racing

I had a comp entry to a local race today and to be honest, it's not the kind of race I would normally run.  It falls into the category of run I call the "gimmick" run.  You know the ones I am talking about; Color runs, Laser Runs, Zombie runs, any kind of costume run, etc.  I guess if these races get people off their butts and outside for a run that's a good thing, but I think they have gone to the the opposite extreme from uber-competitive races.  For example, today's 5k had people finishing in 45 minutes and slower.  Not just 1 or 2, but over 500 people walking/jogging/staggering across the finish line in times ranging from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours.  To reward such an effort all runners got a candy bar, a cup of melted chocolate from an enormous chocolate fountain and a stack of Vanilla Wafers and Oreos for dipping and potato chips. Oh, there were some token bananas and orange slices, but the chocolate was the draw. I am truly motivated by many runners, regardless of speed or ability, but it gets to the point when you have to say, "this is kind of a joke."  Oh, and I forgot to mention that they were serving chocolate cupcakes at the water stops at miles 1 and 2?!?

I ran a pretty good race, although the course was short.  I ran a 17:54 which was good enough for 3rd place overall and I won a prize of , you guessed it, a giant chocolate bar.  

Happy Running!