Golden Gate Park Open - Cross Country
This was a four mile race through Golden Gate Park sponsored by USA Track and Field. It is a very serious race with top competitors from all over the Bay area. Pretty much all members of seriou teams.Whew. Talk about entering races over your head. This was one of them.
I was pumped for Pac Grove Sprint Tri the next day so I wasn't treating it as an A race. I wanted to run a respectable 26 minutes for the four miles (6:30 pace). Maybe 27 to account for the hills and offroad aspect. This should have been achievable. I didn't quite make that.
The started in the field around 30th and JFK. The race started at 10:15 a bit later than planned. There was a mass field start along a wide line with a front line and another line 4 feet back. Somehow I got stuck in the front line and it caused me to go out too fast. We turned off of JFK after half a mile and headed down into the woods to hit the first mile. I hit it at 6:10 which was too fast given the offroad nature. Then up a real hill and past a field and some bleachers back to the start for the second mile. I hit that at around 12:45, again too fast. I did the third mile at the 20 minute mark. The last mile I was done and finished in 27:40. I think if I had gone out at 6:30 and no faster I could have done 26 and change.
But this was a fun race. I think I would only do it again with a track club though, which was the orientation of the event.
I was pumped for Pac Grove Sprint Tri the next day so I wasn't treating it as an A race. I wanted to run a respectable 26 minutes for the four miles (6:30 pace). Maybe 27 to account for the hills and offroad aspect. This should have been achievable. I didn't quite make that.
The started in the field around 30th and JFK. The race started at 10:15 a bit later than planned. There was a mass field start along a wide line with a front line and another line 4 feet back. Somehow I got stuck in the front line and it caused me to go out too fast. We turned off of JFK after half a mile and headed down into the woods to hit the first mile. I hit it at 6:10 which was too fast given the offroad nature. Then up a real hill and past a field and some bleachers back to the start for the second mile. I hit that at around 12:45, again too fast. I did the third mile at the 20 minute mark. The last mile I was done and finished in 27:40. I think if I had gone out at 6:30 and no faster I could have done 26 and change.
But this was a fun race. I think I would only do it again with a track club though, which was the orientation of the event.
posted by Adam Blum at 5:11 PM
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