Much Better. . Not That Great...

Race #1 this AM - I did the Lancaster Red Rose Run (5mi) in 33:48. I forgot how tragically hard this course is. Myself and Dave & Christine each blew our goal time by a minute. However, there are many good points:

Last year, I followed up a 35:29 Red Rose with a more honest 34:10 only a month later, so the course is at least a minute slow, meaning my 33:48 is probably comparable to a 32:45ish.

Here's how my splits compared to last year -

6:22 this year - 6:34 last year
6:19 - 6:34
7:55 - 7:16
7:21 - 7:46
6:59 - 7:19

So my biggest net gain came on the brutal 4th mile, which is pretty much a 1 mile hill.

All in all, I'll take it.. this is a gutsy race. You have to be willing to run hard on the first two miles of downhills, knowing you'll pay for it on the 4th mile. So I did and I did.

Results posted when available, but more than anything, this means I'm currently tracking 20 seconds per mile faster than I was last year at this time, which is a very good thing.

One more thing.. the first time I ran this race was in '88, when I was a high school stud. I don't know my exact time, but it was comparable to today... However, back then, I was just ramping up to an aggressive cross-country season, and here, I'm at a mini-peak. So when I go nuts these days, I can scrape the potential of what I once was. Youth - it's truly wasted on the young.

Comments

  1. Peg S2:34 PM

    Well.... 33:48 sounds pretty darn good to me!
    52 minutes felt hard too. The sun came out right after the 2 mile marker (for me) and my legs & lungs turned to wood. It is a hard course, but the next 5 miler I'm signed up for is the Ox Trot so I suspect the Red Rose will not seem so bad then! ;-)
    Peg

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marcy4:12 PM

    Dude that's way fast :-) Very nice, congrats on an awesome job!

    88' in HS, huh? I think I was still in elementary school :P LMAO only bustin!

    ReplyDelete

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