As many of you may know I am in training for the Twin Cities marathon so this morning I ran my first official race to use as a training tool. I competed in a 10k race in the city of Roseville Minnesota.

The course was hilly like you couldn't believe, but I did pretty well finishing in 41:42, which is a 6.43 a mile pace.

This time is unofficial and the official results won't be posted until tomorrow but I looked at last years results and this pace would have placed me in 27th place out of 372 runners which isn't bad. I have no idea what place I came in as the slower 5k runners were finishing at the same time as me but I was probably in the top 40 or so.

I feel good about the race but I feel I could have done a little better as I held back a little bit wanting to make sure I had enough energy to complete the race and handle the insane hills that we kept having to climb. I should have believed the phrase on the website that said this was a very challenging hilly course. Anyway at the end of the race I still had a lot of energy left so at my next 10k in a couple of weeks I will know that I can go a little harder.

Anyway not that anyone on the org cares but here are my running stats as provided by my super cool heart rate monitor watch.

41:42.03 Average overall heart reate of 173 bpm

Mile 1 = 6:07.9 Average heart rate = 167
Mile 2 = 6:41.3 Average heart rate = 173
Mile 3 = 7:02.5 Average heart rate = 171
Mile 4 = 6:56.0 Average heart rate = 171
Mile 5 = 6:55.7 Average heart rate = 174
Mile 6 = 6:38.2 Average heart rate = 181
Last.2 = 1:20.7 Average heart rate = 179




This morning I ran my second 10k race in City of River Falls, Wisconsin. I finished four seconds slower then my first 10k but I actually feel very good about the results as my hip was hurting and I was extremely tired as I didn't sleep very well and had to wake up at 5:30 this morning.

I placed 23 out of 172 runners. I messed up my watch so I can't give you my mile splits but my average heart rate was once again 173 bpm so I guess I pretty much ran the same race. I felt a lot more tired at the finish which I spoze is due to the fact that I was so tired to begin the race.

I like the 10k distance, but my next race is going to be a half marathon and then I am going to run a couple of 5k races and a 20 miler before the marathon so I may not run another 10k for a few months,


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[This message was edited Sat Jul 12 12:33:03 PDT 2003 by lovemachine]

That's great! Good for you

awesome!

I'm posting this for the 15 people or so who read this thread Thanks Apple and irresistibleb1tch for the kind words and not letting the thread completely die:grin:

I officially placed 33 out of 293 which is pretty good but gives me room for improvement.

My official time was 8 seconds slower then my time because I didn't start the watch until I crossed the start line.

Will the TC Marathon be your first?

Congratulations... I don't have the lung capacity to do something like that... I would pass out after 1K!!

theSpark said:

Yes it will. I quit smoking late last summer and I was gaining weight so I decided to start running to try to keep in shape and it soon became an obsession.


The race yesterday was my first race of any kind.


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[This message was edited Sun Jun 29 8:34:48 PDT 2003 by lovemachine]

Great job. The marathon is unlike any experience you ever had.good luck.

I'm happy for you that you've
been smoke free for a year and
completed your first 10k race without
any complications. You will do better
the next race because you will be prepare
for it.

lovemachine said:

I suppose I should add that for the second race my time was 41.54 which breaks down into a 6:44 a mile pace.

I also scored at the finishing table as after the race was long completed I noticed that there was still a box of running gels sitting there so I grabbed a bunch to bring home. Those things are like a $1.50 each


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[This message was edited Sat Jul 12 12:37:49 PDT 2003 by lovemachine]