Wanna see what I look like when I’m running as hard as I can maintain? Well, here’s my race photo from the Heights 5K. I think this may be close to the finish, when I was basically gasping for air. Attractive, right? Ugh.
I joined three of the BAFT coaches tonight for a tempo run in Walter Hall Park. We met at 6:00, which was perfect timing — I finished my work for the day at 5:30 — and also horrible timing — it was hot. Steamy. To be honest, it wasn’t that bad compared to what I know the temperatures will be like a month from now, but still. Hot.
A lap around the park is about 1.2 miles, and we were scheduled to do a 40 minute tempo run, so that lined up pretty well — a lap of warmup, a lap at tempo pace, and a lap of cooldown. The tempo lap was done at 9:37 average pace. I started out faster and slowed down at the end as the heat really started to get to me. I walked for a minute to catch my breath before starting my cooldown lap. I find it very hard to go from fast running immediately to cooldown running — I always feel like I need to walk, catch my breath, let my heart rate come down a bit, and then start a slow cooldown jog. I don’t know if that’s ok or not, but it’s what I do.
Since the launch is in the evening, I thought about signing up for the Tejas Tri on Sunday but decided not to push things. Instead, I’ll stay closer to home and do the BARC Pay-Your-Dues Prediction Run on Sunday morning. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve never done a prediction run, so it’ll be interesting to see how close I get to my expected time without any watches or Garmins to use during the run. And it’ll be nice to meet some more BARC folks.
For the first time in two and a half years, I’ve been thinking of doing another marathon. I entered the lottery for the New York Marathon in November, so there’s already a slim possibility that I’ll get picked for that one. If not, I’ll be looking for an interesting race in the January/February time frame. I could do Houston again, of course. I already registered for the Houston Half Marathon, and I could just switch to the full if I decide to go for it. But I can’t shake the feeling that if I’m going to do another 26.2, I should do it somewhere new.
We’ll see.
Steve says
Great job on the Harra web site! Really Nice!
JustJunebug says
for some reason there is NO photos of me at Heights. And i know for a fact i almost ran over this one dude with a camera…
katie says
Seattle Marathon: November 25. If you do it, I’ll do it. I have been thinking a little that way…
Tiggs says
I’m just glad to see someone else gets a red face like me. After I run my face is always blood red from the cheeks up! People always ask me if I’m okay! LOL!
Good luck with launch. I should get replay here on Armed Forces Tv! I’m very excited for you!