Now I have not been training for this race. I honestly haven't looked at the awesome training plan I created for myself in at least two months. Yeah I've been bad. But you know what? Life happens. Stuff comes up, plans change and it's not always possible to get in all your runs. With all of this going on I decided that I wanted to test out run/walking. Now I haven't purposely run/walked a race ever. Ok well I did walk when taking gels in Seattle and mid-race decided to run/walk Nashville (only because of the horrid conditions) but I hate walking during a race. It's always hard to motivate myself to start running again. Plus it's only 13 miles. I know I can run it without stopping, but at what speed this time?
So the test began. I set my Garmin to alarm every 11 minutes. That way I'd run for 11 the first time, walk for one minute then run for ten and so on. Josh broke off and headed home after the first lap but I continued on. Here are my stats:
Time: 1 hour 25 minutes Distance: 9 miles Avg. Pace: 9:29 min/miles
Pretty impressive pace for taking walk breaks isn't it? Now when I say walk, it's not leisurely it's a fast pace. This helped me realize that walking isn't giving up and is actually a great option for finishing a race you're not really ready for. We'll see how it goes this weekend. If I can maintain the pace I did this weekend I'd be on track to beat my time from last year easily. Then again, my neighborhood has like no hills. Here's what the course looks like:
It doesn't really have rolling hills but from mile 2-5 it's a pretty steady incline. Then again from 8 to mile 11 before it heads downhill. Eek.
My bottom line for this race: Have fun. Enjoy the sights and don't worry about pace.
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