Golfer On The Run Vol. 2

Well, there was the first edition of the Golfer On The Run last year in May. For the race itself, it was a third year, but I only participated the last year. Came in fourth, so I was back to see if I can do better this time. I am running the Prague International Marathon in exactly 10 days, so The Coach wasn't really excited about me participating in this race ... but he knows me well enough and he didn't try to convince me not to race, he only gave me instructions to race smart and have enough rest before and after. The aim was not going all out if it was enough. And yay, it was!

I'll try to make it short, because I need to go to bed. My biggest task is getting enough sleep, rest and fuel for my marathon, so I was better sleeping already ... ooops. The race started almost one hour late because of a thunderstorm. Nobody wants runner hit by a lightening ... It was one round around the 9 holes of the golf course for the ladies and two round for the gentlemen. One round was approximately 2.8 km, my Garmin (back to the old good 110) showed 1.61 miles. I was starting from the second line, after the start the hole number one was slightly downhill, so we went out pretty fast for the girls, relatively conservative for the men. But anyway, there were three girls that went out wow fast. I decided to stay in sight but without overdoing it, yet still my Garmin showed crazy 5 something min/miles. Holy crap!!! I calmed down when it dropped backed in high 6 min/miles. And slowly one by one the girls ahead started dropping. My heart rate was at comfortable 166 BPM or so, but we were going on the flat or downhill part. Before reaching the 180° turn at hole number five, I passed the last girl in sight and I was pretty confident that there was no other ahead of me. From there, I kept the pace that felt comfortable - it was little bit uphill now. I checked the situation behind time to time and pushed myself not to go all out, with regards to my marathon. Finish time: 11:01:20 according to my Garmin, which makes for 11 minutes 02 seconds in the official time :)

Now I am one happy and excited runner, the data from my Garmin look promising (avg HR 173, avg pace 6:52 min/mile = 4:16 min/km), I am ready to take some more rest and continue with my marathon taper :)

Good night and good luck!

I actually switched to the Brooks Pure Connect after
... because of the rain and possible dirt for my new A race shoes.

As a bonus, there is my innovated recipe for after run recovery chocolate milk: take a glass of milk and to make it chocolate, add in super delicious chocolate - praline - macadamia ice cream. Really tasty, especially after the runs in hot weather which we have been experiencing the past week.