Thursday, July 4, 2013

Fireball Classic

No, not these :)  more of the 5K kind...


Although, when I hear fireballs these are what come to mind- LOL.  Anyway, our local track club sponsors an annual race every July 3.  What makes this race unique is that it is on July 3 (which I liked) and at 9:00 pm (which I'm still not sure I was crazy about).  BTW- putting in a plug- if you have access to a track club- check it out!  Ours is amazing!  They hold multiple races, each has a little bag with good coupons, you get a 10% discount at a local running store plus other discounts at other local retailers AND, you get a $20 voucher coupon to use on any race (except the local half marathon) plus $5 off any KTC sponsored race (that DOES include the half marathon).  Then, on top of that- when you volunteer to help with any of the races you get a volunteer voucher.  How much did I pay to join Knoxville Track Club?  $20- yep- I got my money back already!

Okay- back to the details.  It's been pretty rainy here the last week or so- pretty much every afternoon it has rained a solid rain and unfortunately the weather forecast was calling for pretty much solid rain from Wednesday morning through Friday and not just rain- but thunderstorms.  It rained off and on throughout the day on Wednesday but it kind of eased off around around 7ish.  There were a few little drizzles here and there until the race start time at 9:00 and then it picked up a little more the closer to the finish I got.  Temp was about 70 at start time- yes, you read that right- 70 on July 3!  Unheard of in TN!  The weather was perfect!  I did this with two friends of mine (and ran into a couple of other long time friends there too) and we had such a good time!  Lots of laughs which is always good.  Race time came and we all started out (over 1,000 people).  This was a fairly flat course with one incline each way (it was an out and back).  My time wasn't great (36:09) BUT, I will say this- I did spin class yesterday morning, it was wet, and it was at night and I'm used to running in the morning.  I know that technically I could call those excuses but, as my dad reminded me- I got out there and got it done!  My goal was to finish and finish strong- which I did.  In fact, even though my time wasn't great, I kept a pretty steady pace through the whole thing and really only walked through the water stops.  So, my plan for the future, work on speed- I know the only way to get faster is to practice faster.  


Question for today: What kind of speed work plan do you use?

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