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Dracula's Dash for Hope (XC)

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Location:

Salt Lake City,UT,United States

Member Since:

Dec 08, 2012

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

13.1: 1:09:58 (2018 Des News)

26.2: 2:37:45 (2019 Mesa Phoenix)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Stay healthy!

2019 Running Schedule

Feb - Mesa Phoenix Marathon (AZ): 2:37:45. Lingering flu didn't help, but I still got a PR.

April - Bonneville Shoreline Trail Marathon (UT). Mostly just going to be a training run. Finally got myself into the sub-4 club last year, so I'll just have fun with it this year.

May - Stillwater Half Marathon (MN). Goal race for Spring. Looking for ~1:12.

October- Chicago Marathon (IL). We'll see where I'm at in Fall, but probably will be looking for low 2:30s.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Stay healthy, make improvements, maximize my potential.

Personal:

I am a bioengineering PhD currently working as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Neurology at the University of Utah, where I design and improve neurosurgical approaches for treating movement disorders.

Summer 2018 update: I'm lazy about copying over from Strava, so find me over there for day-to-day runs until I eventually get around to copying everything over here.

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Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00
Skechers GoRun 4 Blue - A Bit Too Big, But Free Lifetime Miles:						105.80
Saucony Grid Type A Lifetime Miles:						94.20
Saucony Fastwitch 7 Blue Lifetime Miles:						132.40
Saucony Fastwitch 7 Red Lifetime Miles:						135.90
New Balance Vazee Summit V2 Black Lifetime Miles:						121.90
Skechers Go Med Speed 4 Lifetime Miles:						36.70

Sat, Oct 12, 2013

Race: Dracula's Dash for Hope (XC) (3.15 Miles) 00:18:51, Place overall: 1, Place in age division: 1

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
7.00	0.00	0.00	3.00	10.00

2+ mile warmup, Dracula's Dash for Hope 5k, short (not even a mile) cooldown.

Dracula's Dash is almost certainly the slowest 5k course I've ever run. The course is XC, with pretty long grass, and features 3 loops of a little over a mile, each of which has 6 extremely tight turns of 90 degrees or more, 4 extremely steep rhythm-sucking hills (2 up, 2 down, with a few more pretty steep hills, mostly around 20-30'), and a quarter mile of running on a muddy path across a slope, making it hard to get traction. This morning, the grass was frosted over, so everything was pretty wet, and the dirt portions were muddy. I ran this race on a whim last year and won with a 19:19. The next few close-to-accurately measured 5ks that I ran were within a couple seconds of 17:30 (with a 15:25 on a super flat and fast 2.85 mile course in there as well), so I feel that it's 90-120 seconds slow, at least for me, being the type of runner that likes to get a rhythm going.

Anyway, I warmed up with a loop and a half of the course and some more light jogging, and then the race started. I led from wire to wire and the whole thing was pretty uneventful except that a kid wearing a banana suit stuck pretty close for the first mile or so. I remember thinking, about a half mile in, that I would quit running forever if I lost to a 20 year old in a banana suit. Fortunately, he fell off, so I get to keep running in the future.

Anyway, I averaged 6:00 pace exactly for this super slow course and finished the slightly long 5k in 18:51. The time is irrelevant compared to other 5ks. What matters is that it was 28 seconds faster than last year while equally early in a training cycle, so I figure that I should be able to run some reasonable courses faster this fall than I did last year.

I wouldn't normally pay $35 for a little 5k like this, but it's put on by a great organization that helps abandoned children, so my money seems well spent.

Went out for another 4 and change loop around the Avenues with Holly later in the day. Legs felt fine, but I kept it really easy (8:00 average).

Night Sleep Time: 0.00	Nap Time: 0.00	Total Sleep Time: 0.00	Weight: 0.00

Comments

From allie on Sat, Oct 12, 2013 at 14:26:53 from 97.117.87.43

nice job, collin. pretty big improvement from last year. the course sounds fun, but definitely challenging.

i hope you ran it wearing dracula teeth.

From SpencerSimpson on Sat, Oct 12, 2013 at 16:13:36 from 69.148.208.47

nice W Collin. good effort. miles look fun...

From Jake K on Sat, Oct 12, 2013 at 18:29:32 from 67.177.11.154

Nice job beating the bananaman!

That's a tough course... I was tired just jogging around at the regional xc meet a few days ago. Definitely zero sections where you can get any rhythm going. XC is hard!

From CollinAnderson on Sat, Oct 12, 2013 at 18:31:41 from 70.208.5.37

Have you run it Jake? It's at Cottonwood Complex, similar to a course that high schoolers run, but a little more condensed and with an extra up/down with 180 degree sharp turn, and an extra super steep down into a sharp 90 degree turn on two of the laps.

From Jake K on Sat, Oct 12, 2013 at 18:35:58 from 67.177.11.154

No I've never broken 8:00 pace in that park. The turns don't suit my style :-) Andrea has run a couple races there, it always seems awful.

In the past week, I think 3 different regions had their meet there, and everyone made a different course. Kind of silly.

From CollinAnderson on Sat, Oct 12, 2013 at 18:39:37 from 70.208.5.37

That's pretty silly indeed. There were several teams practicing on the course while we were racing and I almost collided with one of their kids at one point. I'm all for having tough courses in XC, but it's still possible for a course to be tough while allowing a rhythm (long sustained ups, followed by long sustained downs, anyone?). I would have been really irritated if I had to race this in high school. On paper, the elevation change isn't that big so it's hard to justify a super slow time, but those super steep hills and turns really sap your speed.

From Jake K on Sat, Oct 12, 2013 at 18:40:59 from 67.177.11.154

That's XC racing!

From CollinAnderson on Sat, Oct 12, 2013 at 18:42:07 from 70.208.5.37

That said, it's fun to change it up sometimes and just run something totally ridiculous like this, so I'm glad I did it. If I'm healthy next year, I'll probably run it again regardless of fitness. Can you imagine that? 3-peat at the Dracula's Dash for Hope? It would be a thing of legend. Hah.

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