Racehorse - no; donkey - maybe

June 6 brought the annual running of the DCRRC Triple Crown Races. Its a series of 3 races run right after one another and the distances are the same distances the horses run in their triple crown races. James Scarborough is the Race Director every year and I have volunteered the past 2 years. Its a very low key race with no more than 25 racers. The race is held at Ft. Hunt where 1 loop around the park is about 1 1/4 miles.

We almost didn't run this day as a Park Ranger showed up just before the start of the race and started hassling us about a lot of little things. He was taking pictures and telling us we had to do all stand and run on one side of the road. When he told us we had to run with traffic instead of against traffic we had a problem though. First, thats not safe. Second, the course was measured to go clockwise around the park. It would have taken too long to remeasure the course for a counter clockwise run. Eventually though, calmier minds prevailed and we ran on the usual course.

Kentucky Derby 1 1/4 miles
Joe Broderick and Christina Caravoulias were both running today. We talked before the race and we knew we would be at the back of the pack. Now in years past, I have beaten both of them more than they have beaten me. However, this year is different. I'm struggling to run 11 minutes miles and I'm a good 4-5 minutes slower in my 5K's than I was just a year ago. Perhaps its the diabetes. Perhaps its the after effects of my broken foot. Whatever it is, I'm SLOW. So I knew this would be a challenge.

Christina said that she was hurting a bit as she did some speed work the day before. I figured that meant I needed to target Joe. So, when us horses were released I pulled in behind Joe and ran with him for the first 1/2 of the race. But then I walked for 45 seconds. This is where Christina passed me. In looking at the heart monitor data, it looks like I wimped out. My heart rate never got above 146 and it only averaged 135. Joe ended up beating Christina to the line by 10 seconds. I finished 30 seconds later with a time of 13:31. At least it was better than 11 minutes per mile pace. But I was beat! And I still had 2 more races t run!

Preakness 1 3/16 miles
The faster runners get a nice chance to cool down after their run as they have to wait for the last runner to finish (me) before we can start the next race. I, however, only have a couple of minutes to get it together. Thats not enough for me after a hard run. And it showed. We started out in the same order but Christina passed me quickly this time. She encouraged me to run with her but I was shot. I needed to walk. I watched her chase down Joe and they went back and forth for about .2 miles before she passed him for good. Obviously, the Derby took a lot out of him as well. Christina finished in 12:27 with Joe following at 13:30. I just couldn't muster up the energy to catch a clearly fading Joe and I finished in 14:33.

Belmont 1 1/2 miles
You don't appreciate how much longer the Belmont is until you actually run it like we did. It seems like we walk forever to get to the starting line for this race. Christina again tried to encourage me but PR's were not on my mind for this race...I just wanted to live to finish! I felt lousy but the heart monitor doesn't show it...my average heart rate for the race was 126 and my max was only 141. I finished in 20:08... my worse time for this race by far. But on the plus side, I did get a free t-shirt when I finished and I was able to enjoy a doughnut with my gatorade as Jim gave out the prizes. And I think these races will help me with future races as I push myself to more miles.