Mooreland Free Fair 5k, 10k and 1 Mile Fun Run, August 15, 2015

This is what this town is known, the Mooreland Free Fair and this race, or at least it is how I even found out this town even existed.  I know when I first brought up that I was going to this race a few years ago, everyone was like "oh yeah the free fair is awesome", it is about 20 miles from my house and never knew.

The Fun Run is nice how they do it, it is a straight out and back course.  Parents can run with their children or let them run on their own, there is no chance for them to get lost and you can see them the whole time, depending on how tall they are.  If you are a parent, pretty sure you get to watch your child finish, because I am almost certain we did not start till they were all finished, which is awesome because who doesn't want to watch their child finish or help their child finish.

As for the 5k, it is a fast course and generally the talent is fast that shows up.  The course is pretty straight forward, I think there are a total of 5 turns counting the turn around since it is an out and back.  It is really flat except at the turn around, you go down a hill then turn around and go back up it.  The winning time this year 17:02 and the course record is 15:09 for the men and the women's course record is 18:33.  The results are not yet posted, so that is about all the information on times I have.

This was the first year for the 10k event, so the winning time was the course the record, which was in the mid 38's, set by a guy I see racing a lot and tend to be back and fourth with him, even though lately he has been putting it to me, his name is Casey Carmichael.  As for the course, it is shared with the 5k for the first 2 miles and the last 1 mile, so you get secluded from the speedsters for 3 miles.  Once again the course is decently flat except for the 3 miles it does not share with the 5k, the road you go off onto is nice and rolling with some decent hills on them, I mean good hills for the road people lol.  You can kind of get an idea of the course with my little GPS map from the race. 

All of the races have great prizes and they have the age groups so well broken up, that it is actually hard to not get an award.  A little bit of cash here and there too, which is never bad.

The race for me was an okay race I guess, it was my fastest 10k on the year, so I can't really complain, even though I wanted that W and the course record for at least a year.  I started off strong, really struggled to hold my self back for the first mile but managed a 6:08, which is a slow first mile for me so yay!  The next mile I was able to back off a little more even though it was a little slow, I think it was like 6:30, way off pace.  Right after the 2nd mile is the turn, where the races split up, I was so irritated with that 2nd mile I sped up and lost my concentration to miss the well marked turn... luckily Casey is a more than fair competitor and he yelled at me to tell me I missed the turn.  So, I had to double back and obviously chase him down, as I caught him he said he is going for 6:20 a mile for the first 3 and then seeing what happens after that, just so happens 6:20 is the pace I was looking for to average during the race, so that was comforting.  Stayed with him for mile 3, then he started pulling away after that, he trains on the hills, he loves the hills, and he ate me alive.  I tried a last
ditch effort in the last mile to try and chase him down but he was too far gone, not even the Foltz kick was enough for that gap.

Good race Casey! Can't wait to see you at our next race whenever that may be, and good luck in your marathon in Colorado.

Training for this week shall be:

Monday - 1.5 hour easy run

Tuesday - Mile repeats with a 2 minute rest in between each, trying for 6 definitely doing at least 4

Wednesday - 1.5 hour easy run

Thursday - Ladder workout 100m, 200m, 300m, 200m, 100m for 3 miles, with 30 second rest in between each one

Friday - 1.5 hour easy run

Saturday - 27 mile run (also an early 1/2 mile race with Max for his first race ever!)

Sunday - 18 mile run with hills