New race in Hartselle. Starting line is within 1/3 of a mile of the long standing Hartselle Depot Days race. Jim Archulleta , RD, laid out the course and Jon Elmore completed the certification. Its a fun course- nice residential streets, a few small hills, nice 3rd mile (slightly downhill most of the way). It was so nice of a course in fact that I ran it four times!
This was my first short race in several years without a Garmin. My 205 has always been the voice of reason in mile 1 telling me to slow down. That being absent I was a little panicked when I crossed the mile mark in 5:00 which is 35 seconds faster than my mile PR. Luckily it was just mismarked and I was probably more like 5:40. I felt good and worked myself into 5th by mile 1. On the climb out of the downtown on Railroad street, I took over fourth. I was feeling good and really could have pushed this section a little harder. Once I started thinking PR, it was a little too late and I ended up missing it by 4.5 seconds. I looked back and I am back to my "racing" weight of 2006. That is the year I set PR's in 5K,10K, 10Mile, and Marathon. Dropping 10 lbs makes a big difference. I'd be nice to drop another 5 by the RC Marathon but I'm not going to starve myself to do it. That would put me at 160 lbs and 73" tall.
After the race, I reran the course (24:34) , ran the Depot Days Course (23:50 , uncertified), and finished with another run of the All Saints 5K course (24:21). | 