Sunday, August 31, 2008

Nike+ Human Race 10K

I ran the Nike+ Human Race 10K today - along with about 1,000,000 other runners worldwide. Our event was not an official race (the closest one being in Austin, TX) but we still had close to 100 participants. Which is quite impressive considering the race had no bib numbers and no timing chips - and no entry fee. :-)

I completed the course that Run On! Coppell had set up for us in 53:24. Total distance was 6.28 miles per Garmin for a 8:30/mi pace. Not great, but decent for a hot day.


As seems to be the case these days, I started off the race too fast and had to slow down substantially for the second half of the run. I really need to pace myself better. I'll try to keep my pace at 8:45 or slower for the first half of tomorrow's race.

If nothing else, I am happy that I ran the entire race except two brief stops at the water station.


The course was fairly flat. It mostly followed the trails of Andy Brown Park in Coppell. Route map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/kml/episode.kml?episodePkValues=6655349

As you can see from the heart rate chart above, I was working pretty hard the entire time (the only time my heart rate dropped was at the two water stops). It was a warm and humid day and by mile 2, I was already sweating profusing - and regretting that I forgot to take my SaltSticks before starting. A lesson that I (should) have learned many times before, but I must learn again.

All-in-all, for what some might call a bunch of people getting together to run on a Sunday morning, this is actually a fairly big event (according to the organizers, it was the largest "Run Where You Are" location in the entire contry). We had a nice start and finish line organized by Racing Systems, a nice course, a water & Powerade station on the course that was hit at the 1K, 5K, and 9K marks of the route, professional photographers, visitors from the Jack FM (100.3) radio station & Koala Wellness (giving post-race massages), and refreshments from Vitamin Water and Powerade. Impressive. Run On! knows how to put on a good race.

Oops, need to get to bed now - have to wake up early again tomorrow morning for the Fort Worth Runners Club Labor Day 15K! :-)

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