Tour Des Fleurs

The Tour Des Fleurs (which I believe is French for "tour of flowers") race was held at the Dallas Arboretum this morning. I ran in and completed the 20K (12.4 miles) route. The route went around White Rock Lake with a extra loop just before the dam/spillway.

The weather was pretty nice. Not too hot and the course was at least partially shaded. I tried to keep my pace slow so that I wouldn't burn out and I think overall I was successful as my 5K splits were fairly consistent:

• 5K split: 28:01 (9:02/mi pace)
• 10K split: 27:47 (8:58/mi pace)
• 15K split: 27:41 (8:56/mi pace)
• 20K split: 28:48 (9:17/mi pace)

Here are the full splits (by mile):

and my (ridiculously high) heart rate during the run:


As you can see from the chart, I only slowed down (for a significant time) twice - at 6 miles to walk and suck down an Accel Gel and at 11 miles because of a nasty hill that I just didn't feel like running up!

The beginning portion of the course felt very familiar since it was following the same path and direction as the Too Hot To Handle 15K from July. There were over 2,000 people running the race so it was quite congested until the 3 mile mark, when about half the people split off for the 10K route.

The middle portion of the run was uneventful - which is a good thing. My pace stayed consistent and I only stopped briefly at the water stations (except for the 6-mile one) to drink water/PowerAde and dump a cup or two of water on my head to cool off.

Just as I crossed the 15K marker, I heard a few people saying "Hi, Andy!" and saw Derek and Mike & Simone, who were at White Rock Lake riding their bikes. It was a nice surprise (I knew they planned to be there, but didn't expect to see them at all) and definitely gave a life to my spirits for the final 3.1 miles.

Anyway, the race went well and I placed 425th out of 1084 finishers of the 20K route. Top 40% is not bad for my first 20K and my longest run to date!

My total time was 1 hour, 52 minutes, and 19 seconds (for an overall pace of 9:03/mi). If I can keep this pace for another 0.7 miles, I should be able to (barely) finish a half-marathon in 2 hours. So this will be my goal for the Dallas Running Club Half-Marathon in November.

Race results - due to a lost entry form, I am (currently) listed as "Unknown Particip. 2742":
http://www.doitsports.com/newresults3/client/142514_173433_2007.html

MotionBased workout info: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4019743