Moreland's race

Also known as the Wanut Hill Ribbon Run 5K, this is the race to help James Moreland defray some of his costs for managing the 50+ race club. I really apprecaite everything James does for us so I'm happy to run in this race.

This race is aptly named as a)we run a nasty little hill 2x and b)from the air the course looks like a ribbon. In fact we cross through 1 intersection 6 times. To make that intersection interesting, Jim has volunteers handing out playing cards to the runners as they pass through the intersection. Whoever has the best poker hand wins a free entry into a Capital Running Club race.

There were only 24 runners for the race. A number of the usual suspects, like Peter Blank and Karsten Brown were not there as I believe that they had other races to run. But John Way, Ted Poulos, Bob Platt, Dee Nelson, John Winkert, and Ric Franke were there. I started off near the back but quickly passed Ric and a woman later identified as Jeanette Novak. I also passed a couple running together on the first hill. They stayed close behind me the entire race and pushed me to the finish line so I'm grateful to them for that.

I finished in 20th position with a time of 37:03 (37:00 according to my watch). I was more than 2 1/2 minutes behind my closest competitor so I had no one pulling me along from the front side. My average heart rate was 141 (mission accomplished). My max heart rate was 155. What I'm most encouraged by is that I spent over 6 minutes in zone 4, which is a heart rate greater than 148. This resulted in a lot of walk breaks (looks like 11) but they were short and then I pushed myself again. This was actually a really good training run. More runs like this should improve my strength and endurance.