Race Director Roget Perham brought the The Great Stew Chase 15K out of the Knights of Columbus back for the first time since 2020. I missed that one but ran 59 and a half minutes in 2019. It was good to be back. A reported 150 were registered for the 10AM start. The weather was great too being in the high 40's and dry pavement. I used the event as a long run but wanted some discomfort without wrecking myself. The weekly mileage and anaerobic work just has not been there to support any oxygen debt. I was really undecided on a time but planned on feeling it out one mile at a time. In the end, I wound up averaging 8:16's and this is how I got there breaking each 5K down.
The opening 5K had splits around 7:56, a bit quicker than I wanted but adjusted for the middle of the race. I kept my place after 1.5 miles as it thinned out. The next 5K introduced the hills in Centennial Park, Peabody, so I was cool with backing off, averaged around 8:30's. Two folks caught me on the big hill approaching the turn around before Rt. 1. The last 5K, got back to 8:10's but it felt like I was pushing harder. I had a few folks coming back on the rolling hills before reaching Rt. 129. I managed to catch three people with a mile to go and closed in with a 7:33-ish paced last half mile. 1:16:59 overall time, 8:16 pace average per mile. We'll take it. I collected myself and headed into the KofC dining room for a bowl of Stew and Cookies to reward my humble effort.
No comments:
Post a Comment