Yes, if you have run it before!
The Hyde Park Blast is a 4 mile point-to-point race through one of Cincinnati's more beautiful urban neighborhoods. I ran this race two years ago and finished with the not-so-impressive time of about 44 minutes. At least that's what I think. I've tried to block it out of my mind and swore I'd do everything in my power to be out of town every July 4th weekend so I wouldn't have to run this race again. This weekend, I find myself in the unusual position of being the only person in my family who is in town so off I went to the races!
The goodies for the Blast, by the way, are awesome. The shirt is a TOTALLY cute women's cut cotton t-shirt with the slogan "Bust a Hump up these Hills." Ha! Ha! At least they're honest. Also, I got a cute pink running hat embroidered with the little Blast spaceship logo that says "Cancer Sucks" on the back, a Nike nalgene-type water bottle, and, the best thing -- a coupon good for a $25 coupon to the sponsoring running store if I test drive a Toyota (which I did on Thursday). I made money on this race people!
Shuttles and Toyota Hybrids drove runners to Ault Park at the top of Hyde Park. There were several starts: Cliff Bar Chase for the Cash (whatever that is, but it involved some guy getting a head start) 7:50, women's elite start 7:55, Men's elite and main field start 8:00, RUNNERS WITH DOGS AND STROLLERS START 8:04, walkers 8:05. Of course, everything went off schedule with all those starts and we didn't actually start until almost 8:15.
I'll give you my splits, but first I just have to say that I could easily run 7:00 minute miles if my dog was pulling me the whole way. You should have seen how quickly the dog people went past! Honestly, I don't think they waited 4 minutes after the main start. The dogs probably pulled out when the main field started running. Can you picture it: "Sit Spot. Wait for the gun boy!" Yeah, right.
Wait, wait... the course! Elevation at the start is 760 feet and at the finish is 666 feet (let's call that 665 LOL). But the journey down those 100 feet is like a roller coaster ride. All that's missing is the loop-d-loop. Just when you start to enjoy the downhill momentum, it's back up to the top and higher! And the worst punishment of all comes just a mile from the finish. Look at your watch at the 3 mile mark and you think you're right on target... A quarter mile later, you've got some catching up to do!
There's a nice little festival at the end that includes donuts, scrambled eggs and Christian Moerlein beer. (Well, this is Cincinnati).
How'd I do? Awesome baby! Another PR in the books and revenge is mine! These are Garmin times. The race was chip timed, but results aren't yet posted:
Time: 35:41 Laps: 8:49, 8:57, 8:45, 8:47
I am very pleased with this performance. My goal was 35:xx which I felt that my training supported. When my husband asked me what my strategy was to achieve it, I said I would try to run 4 consistent laps a little under 9:00. Without even taking into account the hills, I did exactly what I said I would do. I didn't go out too fast which would have ruined it for me and I maintained a very consistent pace. Yeah,me!
Check out this elevation:
2 comments:
WOW! Ok...I take back what I said about your trainer. Eventhough, YOU ran the race and got the PR, I probably should give some credit to him pushing you like he does in that non-runner sort of way. ;)
Your blog is getting so high tech. podcasts, pictures, music....geez...I'm falling behind.
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