Yesterday I ran the Wauconda Bunny Hop, a 4 mile run around
Bangs Lake, organized by the Friends of the Wauconda Library. It very much reminds me of the community
races I would run as a teen, before there were Mudders and Color Runs and Rock
& Rolls and Hot Chocolates. Run
completely by volunteers, the funds reinvested back into the community, these
runs attract everyone from serious runners to people who just want to
participate. I highly encourage doing a
couple of these runs every year to help your community.
After 15 years as a competitive athlete, I treat every race
as an opportunity to improve. It’s not
about placement, though, but time.
Runners talk about PR, personal record, and getting one is always a
goal. Beyond time, it also is a good way
to do a dress rehearsal with run prep. I
had my favorite carb load, fettucine alfredo, for dinner the night before, then
had my ususal coffee and carb breakfast on my way to the race.
My plan was to do a progression run, where each mile is
faster than the previous one. The course
is somewhat hilly, with most of the first three miles the natural up and downs
of roads near a lake. I had lunch with a
fellow former college cross country runner last week, and was reminded of how
to conquer hills—power right through them.
That became key when they said I ran my first mile in 10 minutes, making
my progression run impossible.
I decided to instead use the hills as an interval workout,
charging up the hills, then using the downhills to ease the rest. It worked when I heard the two mile
split: 19:45.
One thing you do as a runner is prep for how you will dress
for races. The weather was supposed to
warm 10-15 degrees in the time between leaving the house and finishing the
race. When that temperature differential
is between 50 and 70 degrees, it’s usually not too much of the issue, but when
the differential is between 27 and 42 degrees, it’s very hard to predict what
makes the most fashion sense. I dressed
in layers, a t-shirt with a zip-up jacket, but had put my number on my jacket
instead of my pants.
When I hit mile 3, I was warm, warm enough that I wanted to
take off my jacket, but since I had my race number on it, I had to leave it on
and run a very hot, slow mile. I was
30:45 at the split, so an 11 min mile. I
was still on pace for a PR if I just used all my tempo run practice, and since
I knew the course well enough to know I was almost done…I just kept plugging.
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