First Race For 2010!

Today is my very first race for 2010, in fact, my last race was back in July 2009, "The 9th Annual 4th of July 5k Blast," before my hip joint injury in September.  I decided to join the Las Vegas Track Club and to run in their "LVTC 2010 Championship Series," which is a number of points accumulated in 10 events held monthly.  Today was the very first event, "The LVTC Championship 10k Race at Mission Hills."

Since this is my first race in over seven months and I'm just recovering from a hip joint injury, I decided to run this race at 85-90% of my effort...to stay true to my resolve of not going crazy with the pacing and time, I've left my beloved Garmin Forerunner, heart rate monitor, and even my wrist watch at home.  I don't really plan on having a personal record, therefore, I was more relaxed than usual and prepared to have fun!  Without my "tools" this race report won't be as detailed as my races in the past.

I awoke at 6:00 a.m., with only four hours of sleep as I work nights as a Las Vegas Checker Cab driver.  Didn't have to worry about my racing clothes as I slept in my shorts, thermal top and Coolmax socks, all I had to do was jump in my shoes and was ready to go.  I had a small breakfast of Gatorade and a granola bar.  Mission Hills is 23 miles from home and left at 6:30 a.m. as to give me ample time to arrive at the course, pay my LVTC membership, dues, and accomplish my usual race warmup routine.

The weather was chilly for Las Vegas standards, 40 degrees with winds around 4-6 mph, and the skies were partly cloudy.  I was happy to be wearing my garden gloves and thermal top!

The event had 89 runners, with 10 runners in my age division of 50-59 year olds.  I recognized three of my fellow age groupers, but the others I didn't know.

The race started promptly on time and we all charged up the first hill.  They don't call this area "Mission Hills" for nothing, as we had to struggle with several tough climbs.  The course snaked up several hills with plenty of tangents to trim.  Since the event only had 89 runners we quickly became spread out.

I made a concerted effort not to run too fast at the start and succeeded in keeping a nice rhythm throughout the first two miles, the third mile was a different story as the hill was too steep and forced me to take shorter strides.  Several runners were forced to walk and as I passed them I gave encouraging remarks, probably sounded more like grunts, but I hoped they understood.

The turnaround was the steepest part, but inwardly I smiled, as I knew most of my return to the starting line was downhill.  I had to dodge several runners still climbing to the turnaround...that's all I needed to do was collide head-on with another runner.  It was also getting more difficult to cut the tangents as the slower runners were also cutting tangents as we approached eachother. I allowed myself to make up some lost time by lifting my knees and quickening my pace.  I was flying! The downhill stretch I was probably running around 7-7:30 minute miles.  Around 5 miles I noticed that my feet were making  loud slapping sounds, I returned to shorter strides and lower knee raises until my foot falls were quiet again.

The last mile was a struggle as I was striving to catch a person 50 feet ahead who looked like he might be in my age group...I caught myself, and remembered I'm not really racing, just need to keep running a steady, strong pace.  The last tangent to the starting line I missed by 10 feet as I was in the zone and the turn was not marked clearly, thankfully, the runner behind me shouted that I was going the wrong way...I made a quick about face and followed him into the finishing chute.

My time was 50:36 and finished 5th in the 50-59 age group.  Average pace per mile: 8:08 minute miles. I was satisfied with the result and now have a time to beat later in the championship series.  The above photo shows how bemused I was to be awarded a 5th place finish ribbon!

Tonight, I feel no pain nor aches and am confident that my left hip joint is now totally healed.  I celebrated my first race this year by taking the wife to the Fiesta Buffet (we had two free buffet tickets sent to us in the mail).