Portland Irish Road Rover 5K March 9, 2008

This is the second slowest 5K I have run since I started in 2001. It was a nice effort though. The first mile was 7:21 with an average heart rate of 164. Mile two was also 7:21, and the heart rate went up to 184. I was able to speed up for mile three, doing that one in 7:18. Average heart rate was 188. Kind of funny: I thought that was my maximum heart rate!  My Garmin measured .152 miles to finish the race. I covered that in 1:04 (7:18 pace), and averaged 189 beats per minute. I feel good about being able to get my heart rate to that level, with out, well, dying  ...

It was a well run event. Lots of people in the race. I think I read over 600 were signed up. The results are not on-line yet. I lined up pretty well, not having to dodge too many at the start. Going up hills I noticed the pace on my Garmin read close to 8:00 minute miles a few times. One time, hurtling down a hill, I saw 5:55! I was able to pass people quite a bit. I ran about as hard as I could. Maybe a little left on the course, but not much.

Anyway ... the final time was an embarrassing 23:01. I say embarrassing, not because that is a horrible time, but last summer I ran several 20:xx, 5K's. It was very cold today, plus I am getting over a pretty bad head cold. I think if I run that effort in a couple months, I will be two or three minutes faster! That's my hope anyway.

Here's a picture I found. It's not pretty, but no one ever said running was!

Painful