SLTC Winter Training Series 15K

Catherine and I have been racing in the Salt Lake City Track Club's winter training race series, and today's 15K was the final race (we raced a 10K two weeks ago, and a 5K four weeks ago). All three races took place on the frontage road out by Saltair. The only difference was the turnaround point.

Looking back, I think I've progressed steadily throughout the series. I ran the 5K at 6:05 per mile, the 10K at 6:07 per mile, and the 15K at about 6:14 per mile (I won't know my official time until they post the results online tomorrow, but it was around 57:55). From what I can tell, a runner's pace should decrease by about 10-15 seconds per mile with each extra 5K, so I think I got noticeably stronger at each race.

Speaking of stronger, the guy who dominated the first two races today got beaten (bad) by a newcomer this morning, a 17-year-old high school student and one of the Sudanese Lost Boys (Catherine found this story about him). The guy who won the first two races is impressively fast, so I think this kid must be something special.

As for my race, I wasn't anywhere near those two. And despite my progress, I wound up farther down in the overall rankings than I was in the 10K (although higher than I was in the 5K). Maybe it was the nice weather, maybe it was the longer distance, or maybe it was something else altogether, but it seems like there were more elite runners at today's race. I could be wrong, though.

Anyways, once I settled into my groove I ran pretty consistently, but I went out too hot, which cost me at the end. From the splits on my GPS file you can see that while I ran miles 3-7 between 6:11 and 6:14, I was significantly faster for miles 1 and 2 and significantly slower for miles 8 and 9. I'm sure there's a lesson to be learned.

Now that the series is over Catherine and I are both glad we participated, but we're both also glad to be done running at Saltair. Very flat and very boring. I can't wait for the spring so I can get out and start doing more of my running on the trails.

GPS Report - February 27, 2010 (SLTC Winter Training Series 15K)

*Update: Results are online. My official time was 57:52.2 at a pace of 6:13 per mile. I was 3rd in my age group, 13th overall.