Couple of Races and a Workout

Over the weekend I traveled to Louisiana and got in a pair of races.

I really haven't felt like I've been able to run here until recently without any pain in my left knee.

So what better way to test things out was with two races?!

I participated in the Dasher Dancer Prancer 5K in Carencro, which is just north of Lafayette.

I didn't register ahead of time because I didn't know I was headed to Louisiana for a good bit of the weekend until Friday at about 5 p.m.

Pretty good atmosphere.  They had a Country Christmas Fair going on at the same time so vendors were starting to arrive too and setup.

It was basically a single-loop course that was gun-timed.  Honestly, I'm not even sure if it was actually timed at all!

My splits looked like this:

Mile 1 - 9:59.87

Mile 2 - 10:24.69

Last 1.23 - 12:34.76

Total - 32:59.42 (3.23 miles)

Course had to be long.  Felt like the first and second mile markers were pretty accurate based on how I felt running, but while I don't know that I slowed down that much the distance is what my Strava app recorded.

I've experienced a lot of variance with Strava, for example, along The Woodlands Waterway to Fleet Feet Sports where you pass by some tall buildings.

So a 10:12/mile pace is basically a 31:41 5K.

I'll take it.  Not where I want to be, but given that I hadn't run much since July it is all a "W" in my books.

I also went to see the Sun Belt Conference football championship at Cajun Field in Lafayette where Louisiana-Lafayette defeated Appalchian State for the title.

Before checking out of my hotel to go to the football game, I registered for the Tiger 10K, which was to start outside of Tiger Stadium and finish crossing the 50-yard line.

Sunday morning around the entire Baton Rouge area, including the Stadium, was very foggy.

Didn't take too long to get my packet and the race got underway right on time at 8 a.m.

Streets were a little slick in spots and a good bit of the course was where the old Baton Rouge Beach Marathon used to be held.  Later Sunday evening at the Sunday Night 5K, Ken Johnson was telling me that the current Baton Rouge Marathon goes by the park that we passed by coming and going near the Stadium.

Offset - 2:35.50 (they institute some "human corrals" to spread folks out around the course)

Mile 1 - 10:19.13

Mile 2 - 10:37.42

Mile 3 - 10:52.90

To the 5K - 1:09.58 (32:59.03)

Mile 4 - 9:42.01 (10:51.59 / 42:41.04)

Mile 5 - 10:03.77 (52:44.81)

Mile 6 - 10:59.12 (1:03:43.93)

Last .2 - 4:00.72 (1:07:44.65)

Really think this was a little long.  My Strava app showed 6.34 miles, which put it at a 10:39 pace (1:07:35 moving time).

This would have been a 1:06:24 minute 5K at a 10:41 per mile pace.

Finishing on the football field at LSU was a pretty neat experience.  It was still real foggy inside the Stadium 

I had previously finished on the field at Penn State and Illinois.  I've run down the sideline at Notre Dame and, of course, where the benches would be at Kyle Field.

I've also announced race from the floors of Rice Stadium and Bowers Stadium in Huntsville.

Had a good trip back and made it for the last The Woodlands Running Club Sunday Night 5Ks, but I didn't run.

I didn't stay real long either.  I won't go into a lot of detail because the crowd was small, but I left so the situation at hand - and one that I didn't create - would not have been uncomfortable for the youngest participant who was there.

It concluded the 13th year of Sunday Night 5Ks going back to 2009, when they were every week during summer time.

I rode the Air Assault bike on Monday and didn't do much on Tuesday because I met somebody new for dinner (which didn't work out).

But Wednesday, I was at Knox Junior High to get a few miles in.

Lane 5 - 2:57.91, 2:48.55, 2:55.20, 2:52.19 (1.044 miles) 11:33.85 / 11:05

Lane 4 - 2:45.04, 2:50.20, 2:50.65, 2:49.89 (1.028 miles) 11:25.76 / 11:07

Lane 3 - 2:49.26, 2:46.73, 2:44.25, 2:46.76 (1.011 miles) 11:10.00 / 11:03

Lane 3 - 2:40.76 (0.253 miles) / 10:36

Total of 3.336 miles.  Better than nothing.

I did learn my weight is a little up when I got dressed to meet somebody Tuesday night so I need to work on trying to drop a couple, but I also know that it is affecting my times (even though I don't have the miles under my legs that I had in the spring when I put down some good times at the Texas 10 races).

Nothing in the books for Thursday.

We'll see how the rest of today Friday and the weekend goes.