Up the Lazy River 10k Race Report

First off, I wanted to thank Joan and Gaston Porterie for their donations to the American Cancer Society, it is much appreciated!

It was a very rainy morning, but the course was only 30 minutes away so I set off in pretty high spirits.  With all the tempo training I've been doing, I was hoping to break 45 minutes, which I have only been able to do once thus far.  

Upon arriving at Mary S. Young Park in West Linn, I found that there weren't very many areas to stay dry, and most people just huddled under trees, so I tried to warm up the best I could.  I used my new "The Stick" therapy stick, it's sort of like a hand held foam roller, to work on my calves and my IT bands.  Then I took a short jog around the park.  It seemed like a nice park, might have to go back some time to check out the trails a bit better.

The starting line assembled at some seemingly randomly chosen spot and after one of the organizers counted down, we were off.  Initially I was bunched up with a group of slower folks, so I had to work hard to get around them and get up to the people who were closer to my target pace of around 7:15 minute/miles.

My first 5k felt great and I average 7 minute/miles.  Just after the half way point though the course hit a major hill that was about 1/4 mile long, which slowed me down quite a bit.  After reaching the top of the hill we get onto the side of a pretty major highway, which was a bummer.  There a few more hills before the end of the race and by the time I got to the finish line I saw that the clock was just passed 45 minutes and I ended up with a time of 45:15 on my watch, and 45:38 officially.  Not bad given the hills, but not quite what I was hoping for.  Still it was my best 10k time this year and I won my age group again, so that is good.  Also the new shoes felt great, really glad they are working out thus far.

Jones, Alex

28

Portland, OR

M25-29

Overall

Place	31
Time	00:45:38
Gun	00:45:38
Pace	07:20
Group	1
Gender	26

Here is hoping this week's training goes well and do better at my 10.4 mile race in June.

April mileage: 125 miles
2013 mileage: 456 miles