Oxygen Deprived

Today was my first running in the Nielson Challenge put on by the Pikes Peak Road Runners club. It's a pretty neat and as far as I know rather unique event. Essentially, you show up and race yourself and who ever beats themselves by the most is the winner. Once you establish a base time, as I did today, then you race against that time, plus (actually minus) the handicap that's computed to help keep things fair. It's held on the first Saturday of every month and looks to be a good way to judge your fitness as well as being another motivator for training. And besides all of that, it's FREE!

Having no idea how fast I can run 2 miles, how fast I should start out and things of that nature. I came up with a plan that went something like this. I know that I can get down into the low 9:00/mi range during training runs now and since this is only a 2 mile race I figured I'd shoot for an 8:00/mi pace. Then at 1 mile I could evaluate how I was feeling and start slowing the pace if needed, hang on to the current pace or possibly even speed up if at all possible. Well, this turned out to be a pretty good plan.

I showed up around 7:30 for a start time of 8am. There was only a couple people there and it was pretty cool and damp. I thought I'd do a little warm up run around the northern loop of the park while waiting for everyone to arrive and get set up. The warm-up was a good idea as my legs where pretty tight and I had some aches in several different places.

When I got back I felt pretty good and people were starting to form a line to get signed in and pick up their bibs. I jumped in line too and then spent some time socializing and stretching until it was time to start.

As the course was being explained and volunteers were being acknowledged I decided to move towards the back of the pack of 59 runners, not knowing how fast everyone else was going to start off and not wanting to be in everyone's way.

Once the race started I found myself in the middle of the pack as the pack quickly stretched out along the well groomed park trail. My garmin showed that I was doing around a 7:30/mi pace. Figuring I should stick with the plan I let myself drop the pace a little bit though I never let it climb all the way up 8:00/mi. At this point, though I was feeling pretty good my biggest concern was not knowing how long I could hold this pace. At the first 1/2 mile marker I still felt pretty good and had settled in at a pace of around 7:45/mi. My breathing was a little heavy but still for the most part under control. As I passed back by the start/finish line I heard 7:55 called out for the mile split. Not too bad I was thinking but I was starting to hurt and was unsure that I could keep this pace up for another mile.

Strangely, I actually ended up speeding up early into the second mile. I noticed that I was holding at several different sub 7:00/mi paces as I worked my way up to the next 1/2 mile marker. At this point, though I was impressed with my pace I was really starting to feel the pain. But, with only a half mile to go I just tried to hold on. My pace kept slowly slipping back up until I saw the bridge that comes just before the start/finish line. My friend had told me that when you see the bridge to turn it on. I'm not sure how much I turned it on but I gave a good effort and just tried to keep my legs turning over at a consistent pace.

Well, it turns out that overall I came in 24th and set a base time of 15:54. Which might end up being a tough time to beat in the future but it gives me something to shoot for and will definitely be a challenge. The race was a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing how I can better my time in the months to come.