Ales Rarus

9 AM. 36°. Sleet.

It wasn't the coldest race I've run, but it wasn't the warmest, either. This morning I ran the Run With HAART 5K in Schenley Park. It was one my favorite races thus far. I love any race that involves trails, but this was especiialy cool because it involved trails that I regularly train on.

Like I said, it was freakin' cold, but not unbearable. The pre-race registration seemed well organized and the race started on time. I finished in 29:15, which gave me a mile pace of 9:26, and my heartrate averaged 180 and peaked at 195. That time's in between my results for the Run Shadyside and Chamber Classic last year, and I'm pretty happy with it. It's early in the season and I have plenty of time to improve before the Great Race. I finished 44rd out of 60 males in my age group and 110 out of 208 total participants (though some of them were walkers and skew the results a little).

After the race, ten-minute massages were available for free. Also, there was a raffle which I put $5 into. There were a lot of very nice gift certificates given out, as well as the 50-50 prize of $30. I won two $5 gift certificates to Subway and a $10 gift certificate to Allegro Hearth Bakery in Squirrel Hill. Due to the frigid weather, only a few people stuck around for the awards ceremony and raffle. Those who did were treated to humerous announcing by one of the organizers, made all the funnier by his ability to be goofy depsite how cold he obviously was. All-in-all, it was a fun race and I'd be happy to run again next year.