Mine Falls Trail Race Series - Week 1 Recap

First, I need to start this post by saying hi to my mom (Hi Mom!) who told me she "found" my blog yesterday.

Last night kicked off the Mine Falls Trail Race Series that our local running club, The Gate City Striders, puts on.  I did this two years ago, but that was before I was blogging.  The series is two 6-week sessions.  It's really low key and low tech.  There's a 5K and a 5M race and they go through Mine Falls, which is an area trail system.  It's really quite nice and it's only $5 per race.  I like to use this series to work on speed.

Yesterday brought perfect running weather.  The race started at 6:30 and by that time, it was probably in the low 70s and the humidity was low (thank goodness!).  The trails are also really shady, which is a plus.  The 6:30 start time does make fueling interesting.  I had a larger lunch, which kept me full through most of the afternoon.  About an hour before the race, I had a Kashi bar and a Hammer gel (banana flavor this time).  I also tried to drink lots of water throughout the day and I brought my new handheld water bottle to the race as well.

Overall the race went really well.  For one, I wasn't dead last.  When I did this series two years ago, I was dead last, every single week.  Lovely.  Last night I was even passing people!  I think my competitive side is starting to come out during races and I'm liking it.  I felt good through pretty much the entire race.  My strategy was to start a little slower and finish strong.  During the last mile I felt like I was really holding my pace and maybe even picking it up a bit.  Although it's hard to know because I don't have a Garmin.  And considering the brick workout I did the day before, my legs felt surprisingly strong.  Today, however, they are in need of some rest.  Here's how things shook out:

Miles: 3.1 miles
Time: 32.43 minutes
Pace: 10:33 minutes/mile

This is the fastest I've run in a long while, so I was quite satisfied.  The beauty of this is that I have 5 more weeks to work on my time for this course.  Next time I also hope to have some photos.  Patrick, my photographer, was in NYC last night so I didn't have anyone to take pictures.