Kiss Me I’m Irish…And Wearing A Dress!

This morning was the annual Green Dress Run here in Albuquerque. Ken Gordon, a friend of
mine, directs the race and it is part of the handicap series put on by the Albuquerque Road Runners. The handicap races are all free to anyone who wants to show up and the start is staggered based on your 5K time. I have actually never raced a 5K here in Albuquerque just some 10Ks and my 5K PR is on a flat course run in Boston, which of course is sea level. The Green Dress Run is not at sea level. In fact, it starts at 6000 feet and I think the high point is something like 6300 maybe plus a little. It will also never be mistaken for flat. While not terrible it does pack in about 600 feet of climbing in 4 miles and the majority of that comes in two big climbs.

The idea of the handicap runs is that, theoretically, every runner should finish at the exact same time if they all have a good day and run the race hard. Of course everyone is also impeded by the fact that they have to run in a green dress. Some dresses prove to be more of an obstacle
than others. You basically have some people out there in what amounts to a ball gown but many choose their dresses for the ability to run in them. My dress was a loaner and its cut is very good for running but the fabric is jean material so it gets pretty hot. Most of the rest of the Outlaws, including the GeekGrl, ordered cool green cheer leader’s outfits. I wish I would have had one but maybe next year.

I wasn’t really sure what to put down as my handicap because I have been putting in a lot of miles and because none of those miles have been ones where I have really been pushing for fear of aggravating my recently healed injury. I went ahead and gave then a 5K time of 25 minutes, which is 5 minutes slower than my flat, sea level 5k PR so I started out 28 minutes after the first runners. The very fastest runners started out around 35 minutes after the first runner. I
started at the same time as friends and fellow Outlaws Mark and Miki, who are typically as fast as me. Mark’s 5K PR is also 20 minutes though I don’t know where he ran it.

It turns out I could have given myself a much bigger handicap, at least another couple minutes.
I past several people and ended up having the fastest average pace of any run I have ever done in the foothills and I even stopped once for a drink and then walked once to drink a second drink while I was going uphill. My final time was 32 minutes. This is very exciting to me because it’s an indication that I am probably going to come into Boston very fit and fast, at least fast for me.
I think I’m going to add in a little more hard effort running in my training but won’t go wild.
It’s probably time to start hitting the lower parts of the mountain and throw in some longer runs at marathon race pace. I think this is shaping up to be a great season!

The Bataan Death March Memorial Marathon is next weekend. I probably won’t try and race
it but I will try and run it well and I hope to break 4 hours.