I would have blogged about the Northeast Roadrunners 10K earlier but I had trouble getting Hello to post the photos and never got around to posting an account. So here’s a delayed report of that race.
There are relatively few events schedule for February. I guess Race Directors are rightly concerned that February weather is just too iffy and runners just too likely to past an event if the weather is bad to justify holding a race.
Northeast Roadrunners kick off the spring race season with a low key 10K using the bike path on Kelly Drive.
Northeast Road Runners
It’s an out and back. The race starts and ends at Lloyd Hall seen in the photo above and here (note the snow!)
Lloyd Hall
They get a pretty good crowd. I was still in my Ultra training so I went out easy a couple of miles before the race. Ran a hard race but held enough in reserve to do an additional 10 after the race. I was satisfied to break 50 minutes. Iwanted to do 8 minute miles and I nailed it right on,
This is a common ritual at races when runners gather around the board where the finishers tags have been posted in finish order:
Checking Results
and then do the river drives loop. I tried the walk run on the loop. Not sure about this method. It was nice to have the walk to look forward to and it wasn’t as hard to start running after walking as I feared. Still I think I became a little too dependent on the walking. Jury’s out on this but I no doubt will be doing a lot of walking in the Ultra.
Caesar Rodney Half Marathon
Caesar Rodney
So what was I doing running a half-marathon one week before my Ultra. Well I figure for an Ultra a half marathon was a taper. Similar to last week my goal was to run hard but not so hard as to risk injury or prevent a quick recovery. In bad weather last year I ran a 1:49:xx so I wanted to at least match that pace. I amazed myself my coming in quite close to that mark. I will have to see the times when they are posted but I believe I about 1:49:30 chip time.
I have done CR a number of times and always enjoy it. Like the Icicle Run in January you get to use the YMCA’s facilities which makes it easier to get ready pre race and to have a nice hot shower before heading home. There’s a large parking lot across the street, so unlike a Philly downtown race, parking is easy.
The tough thing about this race is the elevation changes.
CR elevation
You start in Caesar Rodney Square (that's Caesar Rodney's statue above) and do a loop that takes you down to the waterfront and then back to Rockford Park. Those four miles are rolling with some hills but the real climb is in the park. Two and half miles of steady climb going thru Brandywine, along Kentmere Parkway and into Rockford Park. There is a stretch along Rt 52 and the turn around is the MNBA building. You then have the pleasure of two plus miles of downhill back thru the parks before making a steep climb to the finish line. This is one of the steepest finishes I have seen and to hear comments from others one of the steepest anywhere.
This is the deceptively calm looking finish area just before the race:
Preparing the finish line
A light week of running this week. Next Saturday the Ultra.
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