11th Annual Season 4 a Cure Cancer Run 5K

Daily Quote: "Everyone in life is looking for a certain runs.  Racing is where I get mine." --John Trautmann

Instead of running my planned tempo run, today I'll be running a 5k race called, "The 11th Annual Season 4 a Cure Cancer Run 5K."  I'm a little nervous as the race is held at the Nevada Cancer Institute, which is near the hilly section of town, with Red Rock Canyon nearby.  Not only is the race going to be hilly, but hot as well; the race starts at 9:00 a.m. with temperatures already in the 80's and with a humidity of 38% too!  These temperatures we're having in Vegas lately are abnormally high, and my marathon training is still mostly on the treadmill.

Nevada Cancer Institute again partnered with the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas for Season 4 a Cure Cancer Run and they go all out with a 5K Run/Walk as well as a 100-yard Kids Dash, fun carnival activities for children and a tantalizing Four Seasons catered breakfast.  The catered breakfast was simply fantastic...after the race I had a breakfast burrito, a personal sized breakfast pizza, a fruit shish-kabob, homemade cookies, a variety of exotic breads (my favorite being the banana nut bread), yogurt, and a variety of juices (I preferred the apple juice.)  Hard to believe my entry fee of $20.00 also covered all this food!

I currently have only nine weeks left until the "Rock n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon," therefore my racing plan was to run conservatively in this heat and treat the race as a tempo run, striving to keep the effort around 90%.  This race is part of the Las Vegas Track Club Competition Series and all I need to do is complete the race to gain points...I'm still in 11th place in the LVTC competition standings.

The race promptly started at 9:00 a.m., the first 500 feet had a sudden drop of elevation, but the next 1.3 miles was a steady climb...close to the halfway mark we looped downhill as we returned to the finish line.  Of course I struggled with that same 500 feet on the return because this time it's uphill.  I had no problems,  handled the tangents very well, even the very first corner was navigated perfectly.  The uphill section I had ran strongly without any overstriding and had quick turnovers as I kept an even effort.  The return downhill was not a problem and didn't have the usual slapping of feet when I pushed to maintain a high effort downhill.  I was pretty happy with my overall racing for this event.

My finishing time was 24:15, which was good enough for 1st Place in my 51-60 years old age group!  I was very surprised taking first place as I wasn't close to running my fastest effort.  I was tired and sore after the race, my troublesome right hip was complaining the most. As soon as I arrived home I took an ice bath. 

Tomorrow I return to marathon training, but will be an upright stationary cycling recovery day.

I'll post my race photos here once they're available online.

My next race in the Las Vegas Track Club Competition Series is the "Max Muscle Marathon Tune-Up 10k" on November 13th.