Tour de Bayou 1 plus Neighborhood Run

Tour de Bayou Race:
2.78 miles, 20:43, 7:28 pace, Max HR = 177, Avg HR = 164, 10th overall

Neighborhood Run 45 minutes later:
4.11 miles, 32:41, 7:57 pace, Max HR = 153, Avg HR = 143

The Houston Area Road Runner's Association (HARRA) hosts a series of five cross country races on five consecutive Tuesdays along the bayou during the spring, and I ran in the first race today. I had a blast running my first cross country race ever. The hills were crazy (at Spotts park where I train with Will's Hills) and the rain over the past couple of days added to the excitement in the form of mud. I was really happy to finish 10th overall. Your cumulative time is recorded across all five races, and rankings are tallied at the end of the series.

I had to focus on not going out too hard, because the hills will destroy you. I did a fair job of keeping a steady pace since my first lap was 10:13 and my second lap was 10:30. My max heart rate for the first lap (169) was my average heart rate for the second lap, so you can tell I was fatigued. I was really exhausted at the end, but the benefit to such a short race is that you recover quickly. Afterwards I ran around the neighborhood to pick up some miles and spend time with Julie as she rode her bike.

I'm really excited about competing in the next four races, one of which is at the park near my house.

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TDLY:
5.00 Miles, 50:22, 10:04 pace. Julie and I ran to Hungry's for breakfast that day. Julie actually wore the Garmin, and she finished ahead of me running well under an 8:00 mile for the last half mile. I think at this point five miles was probably my longest run.