American Heroes Run (Race Recap)

Saturday, September 5
Longmont, CO
Weather - overcast at the start, then HOT

At run club earlier in the week, Heather mentioned that she wanted to get in a longer training run. We had briefly talked about running together and she thought she might go to Longmont to run the American Heroes run. I had run the half marathon course there in 2013 and did not especially feel like running that far. There were tons of distance options (since the course is a 1.05 mile loop), so Heather and I signed up for the 9.11 mile distance and A and Dan signed up for the 5k.

Left the house around 7 in hopes of stopping by my parents house to find my race belt (which I could not find) and to get coffee and donuts at Dunkin (success).

This is filled with Reese's peanut butter. It was a bit much.

We got to Longmont around 8 and got one of the last parking spots in the lot. The race was set up to have staggered starts, with the 9.11 race beginning at 9:03 and A's race at 9:37. I spent some time talking with Cheryll and Jim and then we lined up.

I was not feeling great. My calves were tight and my legs were tired. We took short walk breaks almost every loop and we stopped at the aid station at the start/finish each loop to get water and/or Powerade.

There is really not much to say about this race. The course is a loop, mostly on paved trail, although there is a small section of dirt/sand. It is practically flat. There is no shade.There were not a ton of people running so the course was not crowded. Like I remembered from a few years ago - not my favorite course.

We saw A and Dan when we were heading out for our second to last loop - Dan had helped A get a new 5k PR! The last loop I was just done. Blech.

Official Time - 1:40:12
Official Pace - 11:01
Gender Place - 7/15 (woo hoo, top half! lol)
Mile 1 - 10:36
Mile 2 - 12:05
Mile 3 - 11:10
Mile 4 - 11:39
Mile 5 - 11:30
Mile 6 - 11:17
Mile 7 - 11:36
Mile 8 - 11:16
Mile 9 - 10:34

So the race measured short for me, but that was fine by me. I was tired.

A's results
Official Time - 32:47 (new PR!)
Official Pace - 10:24
Gender Place - 6/20
Loop 1 - 10:18 pace
Loop 2 - 10:07 pace
Loop 3 - 10:48 pace

A and her awesome pacer, Dan

Thoughts:

• If you like smaller races and knowing exactly what to expect every mile, this race is for you.
• If you enjoy being in races where people running all distances are on the same course - you might like it.
• The one aid station was well stocked with Powerade, water, and ultra-type snacks (since there was a 24 hour division and a 9:11 race, as well as a marathon. Didn't have to run with anything on me - that was nice.
• The course was marked almost over-the-top well for a tiny loop. But there was no way anyone was getting lost.
• The race was chip timed with an ankle bracelet and you could clearly see your overall time and pace every time you ran through the start/finish area. Results were posted regularly, if you care about that type of thing.
• Every finisher received a dog tag.
• Overall - a good experience. I registered the night before, and included fees it was about $75 for both my race and A's - early registration is obviously even less expensive.