Race Report - 2010 FleetFeet Monte Sano 15K

The day started well enough. I got up at 6:30 AM and fixed myself my mandatory pre-race cup of coffee followed by a half a bottle of water. I left the house at 7:15 AM and headed for the mountain. The picnic area at the state parkwasalready buzzing with lots of runners, temperatures were mild. In all, conditions were perfect for a solid race. However, it wasn't to be. I decided to start at my target pace of 7:00 per mile. However, two miles into the race I realized that my lack of training due to injury and other scheduling reasons was finally catching up with me...big time. My pace dropped of consistently, from 7:00 to 7:15 to 7:30 and so on. By mile 7, I was holding on to sub 8 minute pace. A 10 day layoff from running due to my left heel bruising combined with a lack of speed training have cost me significant pace. I decided just to finish and not to worry about any PRs, as they were out of reach on this day anyway. And even though I kept my heart rate in check at an average of below 180, I did max out at a new high of 196. Kind of crazy, since my highest rate to date had been 192 or 193. Not sure what this means in regards tomy health and training.It is clearly way way beyond the average max heart rate for my age. Not a top three age group finish, but 59th out of over 400 racers is still not too bad.