Notes
Race was supposed to start on the trail by the river at 8:00 a.m., but I heard a countdown and a horn go off at 7:55 a.m., so I wondered if they were starting the 5K early or something. I started walking toward the start area, I was only about 200-300 yards away, and everyone started saying, "They started 5 minutes early?" WTF???
I just walked casually from there, figuring since they were using chip timing, it wouldn't matter. But then I got to the start line and realized there was no mat at the start. So it was "sort of" chip timing, just at the finish line only. And I was starting behind several walkers. And a couple of them were pushing baby strollers. So the first half mile was basically weaving between people and alternating between 9:00 pace and 6:40 pace. Came up on Johnny Pete, who was running the 5K, and he was in disbelief, too. He left me at about the half-mile mark, and I decided he was going too fast for me to hang with, so I just tried to run by feel. My Garmin says I started at 7:56 a.m., so it only took me a minute to get to the start line.
First mile split was 7:22, so there must have been a lot of those surges at 6:40 pace. Next two splits were both 7:37 pace, so that was a little disappointing. I was hoping I could handle 7:20 pace since the weather was great. Then after the 5K we split off and had to climb the long hill out of the park onto Browning Parkway toward Southside River Road. That gave me a 7:43 for the 4th mile.
Then we hit Southside River Road, and that was a fun, flat section. 5th mile split was 7:07, then we retraced the 3rd mile section along the river, 7:19 pace, so that was pretty good, considering I ran that section at 7:37 pace the first time through. The official clock had me at 47:18 for 7:37 pace, but Garmin has me at 46:33 for 7:27 pace, so I'm taking that. Finished 11th overall out of about 80, and 2nd in the 50-59 division. There were only 2 of us, so I guess I didn't need to push like I did those last 2 miles.
On the bright side - I wore my new chest heart rate monitor, so I got great data to help me manage my daily running efforts going forward. Average HR was 162, and Max HR was 166, so that's what I'll be shooting for on tempo runs. My current VDOT is about 44 (Garmin has me way high at 51). So easy pace needs to slow down a bit, toward 9:27 pace, at least until there's clear improvement. MP-8:06, Tempo-7:33. Not sure what my Max HR is, but I might try to test it soon so I can base things on %HRR.