Lumberjack Days 10-Mile Race

The Lumberjack Days mostly-downhill 10-mile race is a great summer tradition and the 10-mile PR for many runners including me. It’s possible to have better weather for it than today, but in six years of running the race I haven’t seen better. It’s almost always hot and usually humid. Today was 70 degrees, sunny, low dew point, with very little wind.

I ran without a lot of motivation today, mostly trying not to get hurt, and finished in 1:32:00 for a pace of 9:06, almost five minutes over my worst previous Lumberjack time, and fifteen minutes over my 2006 time which is also my 10-mile PR. Nevertheless, I was third of seven in my 65-69 age group, not so bad. I know that I could have run at least a little faster, because I was able to speed up a bit in the last mile and finish with a sprint and energy left over. Breathing was four footfalls per full breath most of the way, speeding up to three footfalls much of the time after mile seven and especially in the last mile. Three is a race pace, while four is a training pace or marathon race pace.

Splits: 9:08, 17:28 (2 mi), 28:53 (3 mi), 8:20, 9:08, 9:50, 8:12, total 1:31:00, average pace 9:06. Nice run. My sweeties ran the 5k and did their best ever for that race, so we all had a great time at Lumberjack Days once again.



Tonight's dinner, from the bottom: Organic blue-corn chips, curried lamb, mixed organic vegetables, organic sweet potatoes, onions, organic strawberries.