Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Race Report: St. Patrick's ACTS 8K Run

Saturday dawned cool and blustery, and I met my friend Kalie and her husband just north of downtown El Paso at St. Patrick's Cathedral for the ACTS 8K. It had completely slipped my mind that the race was probably related to the upcoming holiday, so I wasn't wearing any St. Patrick's Day green. But lots of other runners had gotten into the spirit: we even saw two guys dressed as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell.

The race started on a downhill, but it didn't stay that way for long. We turned the corner onto Rio Grande and then headed up Brown Street. Literally, up. It was probably a two-mile uphill, into the wind much of the way, continuing from Brown into the beautiful old neighborhood near Scenic Drive. I walked three different times on this incline, never for more than a minute at a time, but just long enough to catch my breath.

And then we turned a corner and the rest of the course headed downhill, back to the starting line. At first, it was a welcome change, but soon running downhill took as much of a toll on my legs as running uphill had earlier. There were two water stations, and all of the volunteers were so friendly!

I finished in 46:46, a time I feel pretty good about. I don't know when I last ran an 8K, so I don't have much to compare it to. Which is fun--I enjoy odd distances for a change from the common 5K.
At the finish line, there were hot dogs, hamburgers, fruit, and chips--perfect because I was starving!

This was such a fun race! This week, I'm taking some recovery time and looking forward to the Jackrabbit Trail Run coming up this weekend!

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