Training Log Archive: RLShadowIn the 1 days ending Jan 21, 2009:
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Wednesday Jan 21, 2009 #
Running race 35:08 [5] 2.4 mi (14:38 / mi)
weight:174lbs shoes: Asics Gel Kahana 10-07 - screw
Snow Cheap Race #3 at Cobbs Hill. Brutal race. I'm sure it's hard to believe that covering 2.4 miles at a pace not much faster than 15 minutes/mile could be a tough race, but it definitely was.
The race started with 0.3 mile over open fields with around 6-8 inches of relatively unpacked snow, with a slight elevation gain, which was way more exhausting that it seems like it should be. Then at 0.3 miles, there was a hill that climbed around 110 feet in 0.1 mile (about a 21% grade). Not only was there the work involved in gaining 110 vertical feet, but the hill was so steep and it was so snow-covered that just getting up it at all, w/o sliding backwards on each step, was a major challenge.
Later in the race, there was another hill that climbed about 110 feet again, this time in even less than 0.1 mile. In the pack that I was following, a person about 6 people in front of me had extreme difficulties making it up the final very steep section, and kept sliding back, holding up the rest of us. I was sympathetic when I got to that point, because even with screw shoes, it was all I could do to get myself up it because of the steep slope and poor traction.
The screw shoes helped in a number of spots, but for the most part, the snow was so deep and loose that they weren't off too much value (but also no disadvantage, so I'm very glad I had them).
I finished 56th out of 129 total finishers (43rd percentile, which is definitely worse than I normally finish -- last Snow Cheap race I did, I was 27th percentile, although that was atypically good for me). I was 6th in my age group, but two people from my age group (both of whom were 5 years younger than me!) beat me by 2 seconds or less. (If I were 2 weeks older, though, I would have been 1st in my age group, for whatever that's worth ...)
I couldn't tell if it was an advantage to be wearing snowshoes or not. The overall winner had snowshoes, but in the top 10 finishers, 5 were on snowshoes and 5 were on foot. Of the people near me at the finish, it was also about a 50/50 split.
The race started with 0.3 mile over open fields with around 6-8 inches of relatively unpacked snow, with a slight elevation gain, which was way more exhausting that it seems like it should be. Then at 0.3 miles, there was a hill that climbed around 110 feet in 0.1 mile (about a 21% grade). Not only was there the work involved in gaining 110 vertical feet, but the hill was so steep and it was so snow-covered that just getting up it at all, w/o sliding backwards on each step, was a major challenge.
Later in the race, there was another hill that climbed about 110 feet again, this time in even less than 0.1 mile. In the pack that I was following, a person about 6 people in front of me had extreme difficulties making it up the final very steep section, and kept sliding back, holding up the rest of us. I was sympathetic when I got to that point, because even with screw shoes, it was all I could do to get myself up it because of the steep slope and poor traction.
The screw shoes helped in a number of spots, but for the most part, the snow was so deep and loose that they weren't off too much value (but also no disadvantage, so I'm very glad I had them).
I finished 56th out of 129 total finishers (43rd percentile, which is definitely worse than I normally finish -- last Snow Cheap race I did, I was 27th percentile, although that was atypically good for me). I was 6th in my age group, but two people from my age group (both of whom were 5 years younger than me!) beat me by 2 seconds or less. (If I were 2 weeks older, though, I would have been 1st in my age group, for whatever that's worth ...)
I couldn't tell if it was an advantage to be wearing snowshoes or not. The overall winner had snowshoes, but in the top 10 finishers, 5 were on snowshoes and 5 were on foot. Of the people near me at the finish, it was also about a 50/50 split.
C • race 4