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Sunday, May 8, 2011

05/08/11: Offutt Airforce Base Runway Run, 7 mile event

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!!! :-)

My alarm went off at 5:15....so much for being able to sleep in this weekend. (hehehe) I'd signed up for the 2011 Runway Run!!! I'd heard about the event after the fact last year...and was intrigued. A seven mile road race that winds through the Airforce base, and down the friggin' runway???? Sign me up!!!!!!!





The air horn sounded at 7:00, and we were off.




I'd somehow gotten myself lined up behind the security forces group. Was pretty proud of myself for staying up with them past the first half (never completely losing sight of them the rest of the way).



A quick 1/2 mile run downhill to the base entrance.





I put my camera away once we got on base. No one said we couldn't have them....but I wasn't going to push my luck. Large men with even bigger guns were all along the route. :-)


Although, I did sneak it out once while running down the runway.





The bad: I started off way too fast. (No WAY! ME start out too fast? Who'd a thunk it?) So, by the time I hit mile 5, I was done. I kept going....but my splits were ridiculous!!!

Mile 1: 9:50 (whoa!!! way too fast for me...I'll never be able to keep that up)
Mile 2: 10:12 (there you go, slow it down)
Mile 3: 10:35 (just right)
Mile 4: 10:33 (still holding, but d*mn, I'm getting tired!!!)
Mile 5: 11:05 (ouch!)
Mile 6: 11:02 (no comment)
Mile 7: 11:45 (double ouch!!!)

The runway stretch was INTO the wind...and the last .75 mile was UPHILL!! But, still no excuse. I started too fast, plain and simple. Didn't do my run/walk intervals (there were no other walkers that I could see!!!)

Not sure of my official time. I forgot to stop my Garmin just after crossing the finish. It tells me I did it in 1:16:03...so take a couple minutes off of that, and there you go. 10:47 overall average pace.


Scored a pretty sweet performance shirt though!!!!!! :-)

6 comments:

Fran said...

That looks like a cool run to me on the base. I've run on a speedway track once, that was cool too.

You did great on the run! Congrats!

Anonymous said...

Way to go! It looks like you had great weather. I like the distance of the race.

Nej said...

@ Brian - my fat finger deleted your comment. That's what I get for doing it on my phone!!! Darn it!! But, I do have the original notification from google....so here it is, in all it's copy and paste glory!!!!!

"Nice work! Did you enjoy the runway part? It seems like one of those things that sounds really cool on paper, but its painful once you actually get there - like the lap around the Homestead Speedway in the Florida Keys Ragnar Relay. "

Yeah, it was exactly that. No spectators....and running into the wind on an endless stretch of pavement. Cool to say you did it, not so much cool in reality. :-)

Nej said...

@ Mike - the weather was actually really nice. In fact, it got really warm towards the end. I'm a little dehydrated....not acclimated to the "heat" yet. :-)

Faith Ann said...

What a cool race route!! I wish I lived closer, we could keep each other company during runs 10:30 is my comfy place :)

Congrats on another great finish!!

C2Iowa said...

I agree - well done and the weather looks awesome!

Congrats.