FWRC Labor Day 15K

Woke up early on my day off for a 15K run in Fort Worth. The 9.3 mile out-and-back course wound mostly along the Trinity River going through Trinity Park, Heritage Park, and almost reaching Rockwood Park, then a U-turn back through the first two parks (in reverse order) and then a quick pass near Forest Park before ending at the University Park Center (where it started).

Derek was going to run this race with me, but hurt his leg/hip yesterday (note to self: water-skiing can be dangerous) so he ended up walking the 5K instead. The weather was mostly cloudy but the rain stayed away. If it wasn't so humid, it would have been almost perfect weather.

I finished the run in 1 hour and 23 minutes for an overall pace of 8:53/mi. This was good enough for 176th place out of 340 runners, and 18th out of 29 for the 35-39 Men's age group. Full results at http://www.runtimeracingservices.com/Results2.aspx?RaceID=499

I was pretty happy with my performance/improvement. For reference, the 8:53/mi pace for today's 15K was faster than the 9:00/mi pace for the Denton Independence Day 5K just two months ago. Additionally, I ran this 15K almost 18 minutes faster than I ran the "Too Hot To Handle" race at White Rock back on July 21st. Sweet.
Here are my mile splits. It gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling as the Garmin GPS mileage numbers matched the mile markers on the course (yep, I'm a nerd). As you can see, my pace started out pretty fast (maybe too fast?) for the first 5-6 miles. I started taking walk breaks after that - one break at around 6.5 miles and the other at around 8 miles - so my pace dropped accordingly.

The course was fairly flat - about the same as White Rock Lake - but it was definitely more uphill between mile 5.5 and mile 8.5. That incline - in addition to burning out too quickly - probably contributed to my slowing run pace.

Again, my heart rates were extremely high - averaging in the high 170s for most of the run; and I reached 184 bpm(!) during the final sprint. From this chart, it is pretty obvious when I took my two walk breaks. :-)

Afterwards, Derek and I grabbed some refreshments: Panera breadsticks, hot dogs, drinks (water, "Amino Vital" recovery drink (I like my Accelerade better), sodas, yogurt smoothies), and sample Clif Bars. I gotta say, the amount of food and other goodies at running races put the bike rides to shame!

The Fort Worth Runners Club also gave away a bunch (probably 50+) of door prizes, but I didn't win anything. Oh well, running a 15K without injury is already lucky enough. :-)

Overall, a great run. I know I still have more training to do so I can keep my pace up, but the progress is very encouraging.

Map and online stats at http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3847689

Happy Labor Day!