Monday, May 08, 2006

5/07/2006 Flying Pig Race Day!

It was a fantastic day and a fantastic race! I am so happy with the results from this race. I saw a large improvement in this race over the Mini-Heart. It was a very different course, but to go from a 8:30 pace to a 7:44 pace is improvement all the way around. One reason for the faster time is that I felt a little extra motivation since I was running as part of a relay team, and I really wanted to set the fastest pace. It brought out my competitive nature.

There were 4 legs to the race:

Leg 1 6.8 miles: 1:03:57/ pace: 9:24
Leg 2 5.2 miles: 47:57/ pace: 9:13
*Leg 3 7.3 miles: 56:33/ pace: 7:44*
Leg 4 6.9 miles: 57:10/ pace: 8:17

These times were taken from the chip breakdown of the different legs, and then run through a pace calculator for the resulting pace. The *third leg* was the longest leg, and also one of the flatter legs along with the 4th leg, so it may be a little unfair to compare between the legs, but it was not completely flat and had some tough, short, steep hills that I like to call momentum killers. They are deceiving, because they look short, but they will sap you in a hurry. I had faced these hills a few years ago in the Mariemont 5K. They crushed me then, but not this time. I was feeling strong and quick.

Here is the breakdown of the 7 miles from my stop watch. I'm not sure how the .3 worked in because the race started before the 12th mile and after the 19th mile, so it was a little hard to tell where the total leg began and ended with the exchange area.

mile 1: 7:06:78
mile 2: 7:45:88
mile 3: 7:54:69
mile 4: 7:32:57
mile 5: 7:39:00
mile 6: 7:37:46
mile 7: 7:30:82

My goal was to run it in 60 minutes and at a 8 minute pace. I definitely exceeded those expectations, and between this race and the Mini-Heart I have a good base of information to set my goals for upcoming races. My next goal is to do a 5K race with a 7 minute pace. This may be reaching a bit to bring my pace up that much, but I think it's time to start challenging myself.

More information on this race:

Flying Pig Marathon

Sight and Sounds

Cincinnati Enquirer Article

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