Dual Races Today!!!

Well, Pharmie and I are up and off to our separate races today. I don’t think that’s ever happened before. It should be interesting for both of us.

Pharmie’s doing her second ever race on a trail. She did a 4 mile trail race early this year, and now she’s doing a 50K (31 miles) trail race today!! She JUST left the house for her first ultra marathon!! Keep her in your thoughts! We don’t need a turned ankle (or worse)!

I’m doing the Monster Dash 10 Mile, and I’m trying a new race strategy. There’s been great conversation on my blog over the last 5 days about all kinds of things, but the one that I’ve been thinking about the most is my race effort. I’ve been accused of not racing hard enough in the first half of the TC 10 Mile 4 weeks ago, and that might be true. I even stated in my race report that I thought I could have pushed harder in miles 4-8. So today, I’ll still “ease” into the race a little, but then I’ll up the pace sooner than I did for the TC 10 Mile. And then, hopefully I have enough “in the tank” to finish. And not puke. We’ll see...

Also, I think today’s race is on a faster course. Here’s the elevation chart from the TC 10 Miler a few weeks ago. You’ll see a few small rollers, but mostly longer hills, with a difference of about 200 feet from the highest to the lowest point:

Compare that to the race today. Today’s race is mostly small rollers with a difference of only about 40 feet from the highest to the lowest point:

So, HOPEFULLY, I can take about a minute off my 1:02:43 10 mile PR. But, I could easily go out too hard with this new race strategy in mind and end up walking/puking at mile 7 and come home with a 10 mile PW. Time will tell.

After I finish my race, I’ll be hopping in my car and heading down to Savage MN where Pharmie will be racing her 50K. I’ll be able to cheer her on in the last 1/3 of her race! Fun day!! Wish us both luck! Happy Halloween!!