Prescott Fire Department 10 k

Like I mentioned in previous blog posts: The AZ fall running calendar is amazing. So many races to chose from. This weeks options were:

Melrose 5 k (2 min from my house)

Trail ChaCha 7 miler (pretty far from my house)

or the Prescott Fire Department 10 k (2 hrs away from my house)

My friends Mindy and Kris and I decided to go for Prescott. Nice fall weather might turn this Saturday into a great adventure. And it was:

Wake up was at 5 am and out the door at 5:30 for an 8 am start in Prescott. We got out of the car up in Prescott (5500 ft elevation) and it was COLD :-) Perfect. We totally looked forward to cold!!!

After registering we stood at the start line with maybe 30 other people. We expected an easier field since the race is only in it's third year and since there are so many options for the weekend but then we heard: One Olympic Trials Marathon Top 100 finisher female was in the race as well as a lady who had just one a big 13.1 race...Ooops, this will turn into a painful run. And it did. 

I went out with the first lady and we went UPHILL for about 2 miles. And I mean about 300 ft elevation gain in the first mile and 200 ft in the second including some single track. YIKES. Did I mention this was at 5500 feet?

My heart rate went up to 160 and pretty much stayed there the entire time with very shallow breathing. Should have brought those O2 masks that Mindy and Kris have from diving :-)

At mile 2 I speed up a little and got a gap. After steep downhills, more uphills and a final steep downhill (where my Garmin shoed me a 5 min/mile pace I got to the finish in in first place. Did I mention this might have been the hilliest race I have EVER done (except for the Xterra last weekend, that was about the same hilliness, just longer...and on trails) :-)

We had no idea before the race what we would get ourselves into but after mile 1 I decided to NOT look at my watch again, because this very hilly course would make for a slow time ( and it did!!!). So if your training plan calls for some hill repeats next year on this weekend...you should sign up for the race!!!

I got the course record by almost 10 min (I believe) and I most likely got the toughest 10 k TT in my training that I could have asked for. We had a blast in Prescott and enjoyed a nice cool down running through the town.

Here we are with the Prescott Fire Department. Yep, that is me wearing the fire helmet in the first picture - possible switch in professions? I thought the hat was very comfortable.

Notice that I had number 112? Strangely that is the GERMAN Fire Department emergency number!!! Very weird that I, the only German in the race, get THAT number without preregistering...it was just the next number to give away :-)

 After the race we walked through the Prescott Town Square and had a lot of fun with local vendors. We shot some wood-marshmallow guns, saw some delicious apples and saw the craziest dog outfits in town.

I really enjoy running and I can't wait for my next race. Unfortunately I think it won't be until November 4th...until then: back to training and studying!!!