Eagle Lake Classic 5k

The eagle Lake Classic was held on March 10th.  Jenny and I registered for this race a few weeks ago.  It was relatively inexpensive and it ran through a beautiful park so we decided to run it.  We picked up our race shirts, bibs and goodie bag on Friday night for Sunday's race.

Sunday was the day of the time change so we had one hour less to sleep, but thankfully they started the race at 9AM which allowed us to have a little more sleep.  Unfortunately I forgot my phone which I use for musing and timing, so I was effectively blind for pacing.

The race was well organized.  Since I didn't have my phone I knew I would have to really rely on how I felt, but I really wanted to PR this race.  Since it was a small race I placed myself about three rows back from the front of the pack at the start line.  We were at the starting line in time and we were off right at 9AM.  I started out at what I considered a hard but comfortable pace.  Some of the kids in the race were a little out of control and cutting people off, but I managed to avoid them for the most part.

I felt good through the first mile.  There was a lot of support on the course and people were at every turn and mile marker. When I passed mile one I was informed that the clock was 8:08.  This was a little faster than my planned pace, but it was well ahead of my PR time and I felt good so I decided to keep pushing.

The second mile was a little harder.  I still felt strong, but I was really starting to feel the burn.  I think the volunteer at mile two said the time was sixteen minutes and 24 seconds which meant I hadn't really slowed down much.  I really wanted to beat my PR by a good amount so I wanted to keep my pace up.

The third mile was painful.  I was trying to keep pace with someone who was running about 40 feet in front of me the whole race, but I was pretty spent. I took a fifteen second walk break and then powered through to the end.  I crossed the line in 26:39, which was a 1 minute and 26 second improvement on my PR!

Jenny also set a PR in this race.  She came in fifth in her age group and only missed third by 40 seconds or so.

There were only about 150 runners in this race, but it was well organized and well staffed with volunteers.  I would definitely run this event next year simply because f the organization, but the course is so great that makes it wort it as well.

February in Review

February was a tale of two months for me.  I ran two races and got a PR in both of them, but my overall mileage was way down for the month.

I started off the month with the Best Damn Race and snagged a new half Marathon PR.  I had an official time of 2:11:48, which was an improvement of more than five minutes over my old PR.

The next weekend I ran in the St. Pete Rock N' Roll Mini Marathon, which is a 5k. I completed this in 28:05, which bested my previous 5K PR by 40 seconds!

The rest of the month I didn't run nearly as much.  I celebrated my 37th birthday during the month and scaled back on my running quite a bit.  I'm trying to hit at least 65 miles a month, but in February I only reached 42. 8 miles.  I intend to improve on this in March.

Coming up in March I have two races scheduled.  I am running a 5K and a Half Marathon.  I'm hoping to continue to PR each race, but I also am going to continue to enjoy each run.

February Miles - 42.8
Annual Goal - 800
Remaining Miles - 686.2