Training Race #2 - Three miles

Last night I decided to do another of the training races in the park since it was overcast, breezy and only in the 70s. They were offering a 1 mile run for the kiddies, a 3 mile and a 6 mile. I opted for 3 mile to see how 7:00 pace felt.

These races are awesome because they only cost a dollar, they are run on a bike trial that only crosses one road and the terrain is hilly. The terrain is so hilly that the last half of the first mile is downhill and the first half of the last mile is uphill. It gets even worse out toward the turnaround for the 6 mile folk so it is a great practice run for the Shoreline 15K in September.

I warmed up with an easy two in 16:12, did a few strides and waited for the little kids' run to finish. I lined up at the start and eased into it behind a group of high school kids who were running the six at a conversational (for them) pace. We hit the first half mile in 3:31.64 which was perfect. I felt a bit frisky and since I had a nice long downhill to the mile mark I picked it up a bit and coasted through the mile mark in 6:48.32 with a half mile split of 3:16.68. I ran to the turnaround with a junior high kid who was running the six and would have missed the turnaround if he hadn't pointed it out to me. I hit the halfway point in 10:10.58 running the third half in 3:22.26.

I picked it up a bit while it was still relatively flat and ran a 3:14.85 while crossing the two mile mark in 13:25.43. The two mile mark is halfway up a decent size hill heading toward a bridge that crosses Steven's Creek (I think it is Steven's Creek anyway) after crossing the bridge it is a looooong slightly more than gradual uphill to the 2.5 mark. I ran the uphill have mile in 3:35.98 and got passed by two guys about halfway up (I had been in the lead). I didn't go with them as I wanted to save a little in the legs for the four mile race I'm running on the 4th but I picked it up the last half mile and used the nice downhill in the last 400 to my advantage to run a 3:08.68 and finish in 20:10.09 (by my watch). My official time was 20:09.

Mile splits of 6:48.32, 6:37.11 and 6:44.66 made me very happy and I think I could have run 10 to 15 seconds faster if not for the brutal hill the first half of the final mile.

I hit the halfway point in 10:10.58 and ran the last mile and a half in 9:59.51. I felt pretty comfortable with the pace and I am very surprised I ran this fast as I went in expecting 6:50 pace to be what I could do on a good day. Apparently I'm in better shape than I thought.