The Rowe Family Blog

Today, after a hard leg workout at the gym, Mary decided to go for a run.  She ran from the gym towards our house and then ran the 2.0 mile loop around our house.  We don’t know the exact distance but it’s very close to 3.0 miles and probably a bit longer.  She arrived at our mailbox 30 minutes and 11 seconds from when she left the gym.  She says she felt great.  …And she ran with no knee braces tonight!

Last night I ran my first race.  It was the Chase Corporate Challenge in Rochester.  The race took place at RIT.  There were about 9400 runners for the 3.5 mile race.  I ran for Impact Technologies, a company with far too many really good runners!

My official time was 29:23.  My un-official time is 28:22 which I clocked using my stopwatch.  Since I lined up at the 8 minute/mile marker it took more than a full minute to reach the starting line.  With so many runners the relatively narrow course was difficult to navigate.  I spent a lot of the race on the outer edge of the course where there were fewer people to run around.

I made two mistakes during the race that cost me some time.  My biggest mistake was that I thought the second water stop was the marker for the third mile.  I picked up my pace there and it was a mistake because I ran a little low on steam after that.  My second mistake was not knowing where the finish line was.  I thought the finish line was much farther than it really was.  I was planning to sprint for a moderate distance to the finish.  I still printed through the finish but it was a much shorter sprint than I had hoped for.

I was happy with my time.  I met my goal of running it in under 30 minutes.  My unofficial time (and actually my official time as well) is a new personal record for me for a 3.5 mile distance.  When practicing on treadmills for 3.5 miles I was barely able to complete it in under 30 minutes.

The post-race party was nice too.  My company, like most others, provided food and beer.

I’m looking forward to next years race.  I hope to shave a fair amount of time off of this years time.

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