Racing and Pacing

Racing

So I completed my first race with the MDRA.  I joined the Minnesota Distance Running Association earlier this year when I learned that I could save money on races.  I paid $25 for the membership, and thus $0 for the race entry to the Lake Johanna 4 Miler.  I could run another 'free' race tomorrow, but I think I'm going to cool it... much to much to do.   I will still be running, but it's much easier to start a run from my house.  

No BIG recap here, but there are some highlights!

-FIRST race of a 4 mile distance (largely because it's the only one I know of with this distance)

-FASTEST race ever, had this been a 5K - I would have PRed.   The official clock malfunctioned, but my garmin time was 40:39 (4.05mi) which results in 10:02 min/mile average pace.

Ran pretty fast towards the finish line!

-HILLS were many on this course, and I'm happy to say my splits were still pretty even in-spite of it: (9:58, 10:12. 10:00, 10:03)

-MET @steveinaspeedo who was MDRA Grand Prix winner last year and blog's here

Pacing

As I mentioned in an earlier post - I will be pacing my first race.  For those of you who might not be familiar  pacing it means running the race at defined finish time allowing for others to follow along so they can achieve their desired goal.  I will be pacing the Eau Claire Half marathon at the 2:30 finish time.  A 2:30 marathon translates to 11:27 min miles, but since most people run farther than 13.1 miles in race I will be averaging 11:22 (as to do 13.2 miles).  When I allow for room to take walk breaks at the water stops, I need to be running at a 11:06 pace.  I've used a spreadsheet to figure all this out (nerd alert!).  Anyway, I tried to do a 'pace run' and it was surprisingly challenging to adjust.  I actually was 'too fast'... which is naturally better than too slow, but I will have to keep figuring out how to adjust.  I plan to do a similar but longer 'pace run' this weekend.   Again, any advice on the pacing front is welcome!