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Heart Mini Marathon

So this weekend was the first race of the season, so to speak. The Heart Mini Marathon 15K (15K is 9.3 miles, if that makes the distance any less confusing).

I finished 3rd in 48:39, or about 5:13/14 pace per mile.

Well...meh. Coulda been better, coulda been worse. There are a lot of "coulda beens" with this one.

I definitely was hoping to run faster than that, maybe more like 5:10 pace. And I let the leaders get away with about 4 miles to go, which was not a good strategic move.

On the other hand, I think this was an accurate indicator of the shape I'm in based on the workouts I've been doing. In fact, the race was a good tempo-type workout. After all, that's what these races are: workouts.

It was definitely not an easy course. It starts out about a block east of Fountain Square downtown, then simply goes out-and-back east on Columbia Parkway for 4.5 miles. The .3 of the 9.3 miles gets added on with a quick up-and-down of Torrance St. hill. Honestly, it was a pretty lame course; not spectator friendly at all.

I should also mention: Columbia Parkway is a lot longer running than driving.

Anyway, it was the uphills that really wrecked me on the way back. Hills have never really been my forte, but that weakness really manifested itself today. Torrance hill was the first killer; I was still in contact with the leaders until we started going up that. And then the final hill about a mile before the finish killed any chance I had of catching anyone.

Looks like I'll be adding hills to the workout regimen.

So anyway, I'm a bit disappointed with the race. But disappointed doesn't have to be a bad thing; it definitely makes for good motivation.
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