I finished the Tour Des Fleurs 20K race this morning and had my best running outing since the Cowtown Half Marathon. I finished the 12.4 mile course (12.5 miles per GPS) in 1:46:16. I placed 48th out of 104 in my age group, 254th out of 610 men, and 259th out of 1279 total.My time made for an 8:30/mi pace - which is just shy of my Cowtown pace (8:29/mi), better than my 15K PR pace for the Fort Worth Runner's Club Labor Day run (8:32/mi), and overall 6 minutes faster than last year.
From my split times and running speed profile, it looks like I slowed down at Miles 9-10 and Miles 11-12.
The slowdown at these points make sense since at Miles 8.5-9.5 was uphill and there was the steep hill at Mile 11.5. Also just before Mile 12, my Patt Straps were getting loose so I stopped to take them off and stow them in my Fuel Belt pocket.
You can see my heart rate spiked just before Mile 9 due to the hill climbs - hence the slower pace for Mile 9-10.
After the race, I grabbed some refreshments from the various booths and met back up with Lee who introduced me to Jack from the Grapevine Runners and Walkers and afterwards Lee and I talked about doing some open-water swim practices in the area. Over by the Stampede Light tent, I ran into Randy from the Keller Running Club and Roberto from the FWRC. Had some good conversations on upcoming marathons and then I headed back home to enjoy the rest of my Saturday.
I'm sure the cooler weather (70 and clear - a gorgeous day!) and my awesome running partners helped with my time. For a race where none of my coworkers attended, I ended up running into quite a few people that I knew. An hour before the start, as I was listening to pre-race music from the Dallas Arboretum stage, I saw Jeff from our LA Fitness spin class stretching. He had mentioned on Thursday that he was planning to be here and it was nice to actually see a familiar face. I also saw Lee about 30 minutes before the start and said hello and wished him luck, but didn't expect to see him much on the course since he is much stronger runner than me (he ended up 22nd overall with a time of 1 hour, 22 minutes, and change).
I then headed down to the path next to White Rock Lake to get a short warmup in. While heading north I ran into Cy from TNT who was headed the opposite direction (and not running in the race) to meet up with his TNT training group on the west side of the lake. So I turned around and we chatted/ran for about half a mile during which I saw Kim from the Fort Worth Runners Club - didn't know she was doing this "short" race since she is training for the Chicago Marathon.
Anyway, Jeff, Kim (who was recovering from illness and wanted to run "slow and easy" - "You want to run 8:30 miles, I'm your man!") and I ran together for just about the entire run. Having their company really helped me keep a fairly consistent pace - though I definitely slowed down near the end, especially at the last big hill at Mile 11.5.
From my split times and running speed profile, it looks like I slowed down at Miles 9-10 and Miles 11-12.
The slowdown at these points make sense since at Miles 8.5-9.5 was uphill and there was the steep hill at Mile 11.5. Also just before Mile 12, my Patt Straps were getting loose so I stopped to take them off and stow them in my Fuel Belt pocket. 
You can see my heart rate spiked just before Mile 9 due to the hill climbs - hence the slower pace for Mile 9-10.
After the race, I grabbed some refreshments from the various booths and met back up with Lee who introduced me to Jack from the Grapevine Runners and Walkers and afterwards Lee and I talked about doing some open-water swim practices in the area. Over by the Stampede Light tent, I ran into Randy from the Keller Running Club and Roberto from the FWRC. Had some good conversations on upcoming marathons and then I headed back home to enjoy the rest of my Saturday.
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