{"id":1201,"date":"2009-03-24T04:24:46","date_gmt":"2009-03-24T09:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/?p=1201"},"modified":"2009-03-24T11:25:11","modified_gmt":"2009-03-24T16:25:11","slug":"race-review-2009-human-race-8k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2009\/race-review-2009-human-race-8k\/","title":{"rendered":"Race Review: 2009 Human Race 8K"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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It was a gorgeous morning to go for a run, the afternoon was excellent as well.\u00a0 54 and sunny are pretty nice conditions for a race.\u00a0 The Human Race 8k<\/a> is excellently managed by The Sporting Life (TSL) Events<\/a>, a local race management company.\u00a0 This year’s event featured biodegradable water cups and lots of compost trash receptacles.\u00a0 The University of St Thomas<\/a> makes a pretty nice staging area as well, headquarters are in the fieldhouse and the campus is pretty to walk through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The starting line is on Summit Ave, home of the famous Twin Cities Marathon<\/a> hills.\u00a0 The Human Race starts around the 22 mile mark and goes out about 2 miles makes a square around the William Mitchell College of Law<\/a> and heads back down Summit.\u00a0 Summit Ave is split on two sides of a grass boulevard for much of the race.\u00a0 The start is split with the male and female on two different sides of the boulevard joining together about 1\/2 mile or so into the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I started a few rows back and planned to take it fairly easy out of the start, especially given that the whole first mile is uphill.\u00a0 My pace seemed pretty solid without being overly fast.\u00a0 Blogger Chad Austin<\/a> ran by me and for some reason I thought it might be a good idea to try and pace off him – he’s definitely faster than me, even coming off ski season! I came through the first mile in 6:35<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The second mile is pretty much all downhill.\u00a0 It doesn’t really feel like it though.\u00a0 I was just trying to stay relaxed and using people to help block the wind.\u00a0 Nothing too exciting happened during this mile.\u00a0 I was still passing people and getting passed.\u00a0 Was pleasantly pleased to see an even split time of 6:35<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The third mile includes the little square part around the Law school.\u00a0 It is a one block square with a water stop on the Summit Ave side.\u00a0 This square is an easy way to make a fast turn-around on an out and back course. Much preferred to the traditional cone in the road method, especially with this sized event!\u00a0 I saw the leaders coming back by at this point too.\u00a0 This is an up and down mile and I was starting to feel pretty tired.\u00a0 Somewhere in the last half of the race my upper body got really tight and I kept dropping my hands to try and relax it.\u00a0 I went through mile 3 in 6:49<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The fourth mile is all uphill again, but knowing that the final mile is all downhill makes it a little better!\u00a0 I really started struggling and was getting passed a lot more.\u00a0 Thinking back though I recall that my breathing wasn’t labored but that my legs really hurt and I just felt bad overall.\u00a0 Somewhere around here I got a cramp on my right side.\u00a0 I came through in 6:53<\/strong>.\u00a0 Glad to keep it under 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The last mile is all downhill with 80 feet of elevation loss at a -4% grade (see chart below).\u00a0 Before the race started I thought downhill with the wind at your back you can fly to the finish.\u00a0 I tried turning it on, but that didn’t work too well.\u00a0 Some people passed me and I tried to stay with them and they pulled away a little bit.\u00a0 It is a little deceiving because the road makes a quick little jog and so you can’t see the finish line, but then you see it for a really long time.\u00a0\u00a0 You also run past the starting line.\u00a0 Finally with about 1\/4 mile left I realized that I had to pass all these people and dropped the gears down.\u00a0 My final 1\/4 was 1:21 (which was almost 10 seconds faster than the previous).\u00a0 The Garmin records your fastest pace (you only have to hit it for a second) and today’s fastest was a 4:24 pace! The final mile was 6:07<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Overall race pace was 6:35 for a 33:02<\/strong> overall time.\u00a0 Which was a little disappointing.\u00a0 Everyone was pretty encouraging and reminded me that this is the first race of the year, so not too put much weight on it.<\/p>\n

You can see the 2008 review here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Comparison <\/strong>Chart<\/strong><\/td>\n2008<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n2009<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\n6:20<\/td>\n6:35<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\n6:12<\/td>\n6:35<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\n6:25<\/td>\n6:49<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\n6:34<\/td>\n6:53<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\n5:51<\/td>\n6:07<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Final<\/td>\n31:27<\/td>\n33:02<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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[tags] Human Race, 8k, Race Review, The Sporting Life [\/tags]<\/p>\n

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