The first Crystal City run

This Spring Pacer's held a weekly 5K series in Crystal City. The first race was on April 3. It was overcast and the sky was threatening but the rain held off and we were able to get in a dry race.

This was a race where I felt pretty good at the start but I bonked about half way thru the race. I ran the first mile in 10:15, which is too fast for me right now. I needed a 2 minute walk to recover and bring my heart rate down from 150. Then I ran again to the 1/2 way point. I reached that in 16:45. I had visions of setting my 5K record for the year but I knew it was going to be a struggle as I just couldn't keep my heart rate under 150. 7 times it crossed over 150 and 7 times I took a walk to recover. I was pretty good about keeping the walk breaks short as my heart rate never got lower than 132 and most of my restarts began with a heart rate of about 138 or so. My average heart rate for the race was 142 and I maxed out at 154 at the finish.

I finished with a time of 36:34, good for 3rd in my age group (yes, there were only 3 in my age group if you had to know!). Overall, I came in 301st out of 338 finishers. After the race, Noodle and Company were giving 2 for 1 dinners to runners so I picked up a Friday night dinner for Dori and I. All in all a very good time.