UAE Healthy Kidney 10k Race Report

Although I signed up for this one a month and a half ago, as luck would have it, Terrier switched their run and bike days this week in order to do the Montauk Century tomorrow.

After taking the dogs for the usual early morning loop in Riverside, I came home to put on my new pair of Newtons, and jogged back out to the race start. 


Here's a picture of my new kicks - I love their brightness, though though the photo don't do them justice.  There's also the B-tag.

Since I was supposed to do a 90 minute run today, I figured the jog down would serve both as the first part of a long run and as a warm up for the race. Since I left home a little later than planned, I had to hustle down to the start, and made it down as the corral lines were removed. Just enough time to do some active stretching, guzzle down some water, and bring my heart rate down a bit.  Then we were off.


The first couple of miles felt really good - my time seemed swift, and I was trying to remember my proprioceptive cues.  The only concern (aside from my speed, which I thought might be too fast) was my heart rate, which was high.  I wasn't straining, though, so I kept up the pace, and tried to focus on keeping it consistent, and chose to generally ignore my heart rate percentage, other than keeping an eye on it. The day was overcast, low 60's and fairly humid.  It still hasn't rained, and the pollen count is very high, so I ascribed the high HR to that, especially since I forgot to take allergy medicine this morning.  I was feeling strong through the turn after Harlem Hill to the pool, the 5k mark - and then it was time for the largest hill of the day.  Trying to keep up my pace on that one was challenging, and it dropped down a bit.  


My HR was slowly creeping up, and I tried to keep holding on to my pace.  It's only a 10k, I kept telling myself, so I could hold a hard pace for that distance.  And after Harlem Hill I did.


Official time: 52:35  8:28 per mile - Overall 2745/7557   Gender place: 619/3642   


Of course, my Garmin has me doing 6.33 miles@ 8:18/mile.  NYRR distances always seem different, but I suppose that's because I don't run in the innermost part of the loop.  Here are the times/HR's of the mile splits:
1. 8:26  171 bpm
2. 8:26  177 bpm 
3. 8:07  178 bpm
4. 8:32  184 bpm (up Harlem Hill!)
5. 8:11  183 bpm
6. 8:13  184 bpm
7. 8:06  188 bpm (.33 miles - time is per mile)


Overall, not too shabby - that last bit was uphill, and I still managed to surge, which I'm pleased about.  And my times have been getting faster in the running only races, which is nice.