I ran the Ron Daws 25K and again this year the course was changed due to road construction. I thought it was a pretty tough course and to get the distance we ran an 8-mile route twice. Temps in the 40s and sun were nice but the wind gusts made the run a little tougher.
Since last Fall I've been exercising with fewer days of running per week and more days off and usually two days of cycle classes each week. Also, if family activities came up, I'd skip a day of running. It was a good 6-month experiment with the change to less running. I also did not pay careful attention to my nutrition, and I have been gaining weight.
Putting everything together I am not in as good running shape as I was last Fall but I have had no major injuries either. The few times I've been injured over the winter were just to my feet and were from stepping on a chunk of ice or snow or hitting an uneven surface. Typical winter running hazards. I recovered quickly from those injuries.
Back to Ron Daws. I had 16.0 miles on my Garmin and two of my friends did too. I wanted to use this race to estimate how I may do in the Eau Claire marathon in 4 weeks so I wanted a 25K time to put into the McMillan Running Calculator. I had 2:11 at 25K and 2:14 at the finish. Not a 1:57 like I had when I ran it last in 2008 but it is what it is. The McMillian calculator puts me in the 3:50s for a marathon. I know the EC marathon will not have the hills like I ran yesterday so I think my marathon capability at the moment is to finish in the 3:40s to 4:00.
If anyone wants to see what the course was this year, you can click on my Garmin data below:
Ron Daws 25K 2010 by 4twins@gmail.com at Garmin Connect - Details
update: The race results have been posted and officially the course was only 0.2 miles too long and my time was 2:14:22.
--Mark
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5 comments:
Nice race. Glad things are going well in the busy time of life.
I'm sorry that I missed seeing you at the Ron Daws, but I thought it was pretty tough last year and just wasn't up to it this year. I'm doing an easier race next weekend. Maybe next year I will go back to the RD. Glad that your race went well and that you have stayed healthy and ready for your marathon
I ran the race too, and my Garmin measured 15.89. Editing the track manually to take out the GPS "wobble" and run tangents I was able to get this down to 15.79; I don't think it could have been much shorter than that. My best guess is that the course was around 400m long.
One interesting point is that, if you look carefully at the GPS track, the turnaround point was moved slightly closer between the first and second laps. Perhaps the turnaround cone was placed incorrectly at first, and then corrected by the time we came around again?
Anyhow, the exact distance isn't particularly important; sounds like you had a solid race on a tough course: nicely done!
Thanks, everyone.
Colin - I don't remember that the turnaround was moved or not, and like you, the exact distance is not important to me, either. I hope you had a good race. I really like running the Ron Daws and the hills don't bother me.
Beth - I looked at your website and we don't have any races that match this year. I'll look for you if I'm a spectator at one of your races this year otherwise I may see you a year from now.
Hi Mark-
Thanks for running the Ron Daws 25k and for your race report. I added it as a link as part of my weekly recap of the weekend's races over at the MDRA blog. http://runminnesota.blogspot.com. Unfortunately, there are not many race reports this week. Easter may have been a reason. But if you know of any other Minnesota race reports in the blogosphere, let me know.
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