ARR Desert Classic 30K - Run30k

This was a tune-up for PF Chang's marathon that I have coming up on Jan. 20th. My plan was to ran at my planned race pace which is just under 9:00 min/miles. I was going to play it by perceived effort and do what I could.

1st 10K

They had us all of start at the same time which was a little annoying...5k'ers, 10k'ers, little kids and their parents all running on the narrow canal path to their turn-around. Corrals would have been nice, but oh well. As soon as I got through the crowd I was able to get into a better pace. I was going a little faster than I should have, but I was just trying to get through the parade as fast as possible. At about the 5K turn-around it started to clear out a little bit.

2nd 10K

Took in a GU right at the 10K mark...Nothing spectacular to report here. Kept my pace between 8:15 & 8:50 and tried give a consistent effort. At this point I knew that my sub 9 pace was definitely feasible. Enjoyed the course; not that it was anything special, but it was a new environment, perfect for training. (Too bad it's about an hour away.)

3rd 10K

I really wanted to knock this last 10K out in under 48 minutes and I knew I had it in me. I played it conservative to have a good finish. I looked ahead and made each person my next target, catching them left and right. In fact, I caught all but one of my "targets" who looked like he had the same plan as I did. I stayed 20 feet back from this person since about the halfway point and before I could even think about catching up to him, he started pulling away. However, I ended up with a 7:52min/mile that last 10K so I was pretty happy...

I'd have to say...nothing. Had as much as I wanted at the end to burn and used it the way I wanted to. Felt the way I wanted to the entire run.

Sat down for a bit, walked to my truck to change my clothes and then went back and waited for Kim to finish. There was an area where the course turned right over a bridge right next to the finish line so as soon as Kim got to that point I joined her for her last 1.75 mile run. She felt good so I had her push the last mile at low 9 min. miles.


My own discipline...


The saying, "you get what you pay for" certainly holds true to this event...It was very cheap,($35) but there was nothing to write home about. All but one aid station didn't have any volunteers and you basically had to stop to pour yourself some water. (I was thankful that I bring my own water for longer races.) There wasn't even one porta-potty to be seen...The only reason this race got an "average" was because it was a decent course that I'd never ran before. Next time I'll run it for free like the loads of other people who were out there running with us who weren't part of the race. We didn't get a finisher's medal, but I did score a pretty nice running tee.