Peachtree Road Race 2010

For the second year I joined 54,999 fellow runners, walkers, and crawlers on July 4th for the annual Peachtree Road Race.  This 10k boasts to be the largest in the world and with 55,000 entrants and 51,000 finishers, they may be right.  My time last year was 54:31 and I was planning to go for a 10k PR this year by finishing under 54:27.

After talking it over with Dale we decided that I would be better served to use this race as “practice” for running in a controlled manner based on my heart rate.  This is what I will have to do in the NYC Marathon later this year, and I need to get used to doing this in “race conditions”.

I did OK running in a controlled manner… for most of the race.  I finished with an average heart rate of 154, just slightly over the 140s that Dale wanted me to target.  It really is my fault.  I felt so good after Cardiac Hill (big hill, half way) that I started to speed up.  Then, when I got to mile 5 I still felt good so I sped up even more.  I completed mile 5 to 6 in 8:27, and I finish the last .2 of a mile in under a 7:00 pace.  The only point in the race were I felt some fatigue was when I ran across the bridge over I-85.  I think it was the longest section of time I spent in the sun which probably caused this feeling.  I also completed the whole race without stopping at any water stops.  I kept telling myself I would stop at the next one but I felt so good that I didn’t want to waste the time since they were all pretty busy.

Overall it was a great race and I still felt pretty fresh when I finished it.  I felt like I could have run 10 miles without any problems.  Maybe this heart rate training idea that I was doubting a few weeks ago is actually starting to work.  I am already looking forward to next year’s Peachtree and getting my 3rd t-shirt.