28.73@11:27
This was my first time running a 6 hour race. Loop course in St Petersburg running out to the pier and coming back to the park where we started, about 3.6 miles. This was a free event. No clock timing, you just put a check next to your name each time you come back to the start. No aid stations, self supported but since it's only 3.6 miles you've got your own aid station and there are fountains along the course as well as stores and food vendors.
A lot of people running this were doing it for practice for the upcoming Pinellas Trail Challenge on 9/3. It was warm today, but some clouds for cover, and course was mixed as far as sun and shade goes. I had a cooler with ice, a couple frozen 8 oz water bottles, some 12 oz gatorade bottles and two protein shakes.
Loops were taking me around 40 minutes which included time to put more ice in my bandana and anything else I needed to do at the start/finish area. I think there was one bathroom stop.
During the 7th loop as I was heading out to the end of the pier, there was a woman eating a snow cone. They were selling them at the very end so I stopped for one. The cashier was replenishing change so it took some time to be served and then I walked for a bit while eating it until I could pour the rest into a bottle and start jogging again.
The 7th loop ended up taking me 48 minutes, some of it due to the snow cone and some of it due to slowing down.
As I came through to check off my name I told the RD "one more loop" and she said something like, I believe you can get two more.
Felt pretty good the last loop, took about 39 minutes. I had just over 31 minutes to run one more loop for it to count which is not that fast, but much faster than I had been running, so decided to call it. Pretty much right on the edge of being able to get one more done.
There were 4 runners who finished 10 loops, and 4 more that finished 9 loops. With 8 loops I was in the upper mid-pack.
I wasn't planning on trying to race today, just some practice staying cool at a steady pace. If I could do 11:27 pace for 46 miles at PTC it will be a PR. Ice will be key. I'll try a similar run/walk strategy of two walk breaks per mile, 30 seconds at 0.3 and 30 seconds at 0.75 each mile. Seems to help break things up and keep legs fresh.
There was actually no beer involved in this race except for afterwards where some of the group went out for some brewery hopping.
Other memories from this run was the awesome early morning view looking over the water, seeing the "new" pier (my first time here since it was redone), and all the runs past the Museum of Fine Arts where Jessica and I got married 5 years ago.
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