Pete Glavin Upstate NY XC-4 - Run


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Akron Falls, New York
United States
Genessee Valley Harriers
57F / 14C
Overcast
Total Time = 35m 34s
Overall Rank = 58/63
Age Group = 60-69F
Age Group Rank = 6/6
Pre-race routine:

Woke up at 3:00 am (Eastern Standard Time. Hate the switch).Had my usual oatmeal/yogurt/raisin breakfast plus 4 cups half-caff. Left the house at 6:00 to meet car pool at 6:35. It took another 3 hours to ride to the race site (and another cup of coffee). Every single other woman from our club had a good reason not to come, so I rode with part of the men's team and had a great time. 1/2 Hammer bar and beet juice mix at 8:30. The other half of the bar at 9:30.
Event warmup:

I had the time to walk much of the course, especially noting where the loops cross and diverge as that's where I tend to get lost. Jogged a couple of km of that as I was getting behind my schedule. (Pay attention to that; it's important later!). Then I returned to the pavilion, shed some layers, did my dynamic stretching warm-ups, had a caffeinated gel, and did my run warm-up. About 15 minutes, including three 30-second accelerations with walk/jog recoveries. Garmin says temp was 57° but it felt much colder, and very windy, 22mph with big gusts.
Run
  • 35m 34s
  • 3.73 miles
  • 09m 32s  min/mile
Comments:

My goal for this race was to run it strictly by RPE, not even to display HR or pace on the Garmin, and see how well I did in my usual strategy of gradually building HR. Well, in short, I nailed it! It's pretty amazing to consider the intelligence of the body itself. I was paying close attention to how I felt throughout, and the body knew just what I wanted. This is the first race in which I was certain that I performed my absolute best.
What would you do differently?:

Never walk the course, much less jog any part of it, with my wallet in my pocket!
Post race
Warm down:

By the end of the race, the wind had picked up even more, so the main thing was to get out of my sweaty clothes & into warm dry ones. For once I had brought enough changes of shoes & socks. Drank my recovery drink, ate 1/2 Hammer Recovery bar plus a banana, apple, & 1/2 pb bagel. Walked around a bit, but mostly sought shelter. Lay on the grass to roll & stretch. Looking at the layered clouds scudding overhead, I was reassured that the power of the earth is great enough to survive humanity's foolishness.(Really, these stretching interludes might be the best part of the day!)

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Just the point at which I am in my training. Age, speed, & stamina.

Event comments:

So here are the 2 best parts of the day, other than totally achieving my goal and also the gift of cosmic understanding:
By a wondrous happenstance, someone found my wallet, which had bounced out of my pocket somewhere on that great big course, saving me the headache of replacing drivers' license, credit cards, etc. I never even knew it was lost.
One of the Syracuse women, who had just turned 60 and is much much faster than me, nevertheless told me that she wants to be like me. I can only take that to mean that by persisting in running at my age I am inspiring other women. That humbles me.


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Last updated: 2015-11-07 12:00 AM
Running
00:35:34 | 03.73 miles | 09m 32s  min/mile
Age Group: 6/6
Overall: 58/63
Performance: Good
Set my Garmin to autolap at km instead of miles: 1st km: pace 9:19 HR 137 2nd km: pace 9:40 HR 143 3rdt km: pace 9:06 HR 144 4th km: pace 10:01 HR 147 5th km: pace 9:23 HR 147 6th km: pace 8:54 HR 148 And the last 40 seconds I my pace was 7:33 and HR 151
Course: Various loops through a park, mostly grass. A lot of the grass was soft & spongy, and some parts were very wet. Some hills, of course, but nothing extreme.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? No
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 4