Nestle BunnyI ran the third race of the Hoosier Park 8K Triple Crown Series today, which was at the Hoosier Park horse track in Anderson, IN. Anderson, IN is also home of the world famous Nestle Bunny on the side of I69. Quite a treat!
I went in hoping to average 8:45/mile.
The pre-race festivities were near the finish line and included a trumpeter playing “To Post,” which was pretty cool. The race started on the back stretch of the horse track, just off turn 2, so we walked as a group (field of 266) around to the start line. We started off behind the “gate truck” which is used to start the harness races that they do at the track. That was very unique!
Field lined up to start, from Hoosier Park photographerThe 7/8 mile track was a fine gravel that was pretty well packed and not at all hard to run on. Thankfully, they cleaned up all the “horse mess” before the race! We ran about 1/2 way around the track before venturing in to the parking lot, then running the roads around the facility. At one point, an SUV went down the left lane because runners were taking up the right lane. About when he was getting up to oncoming traffic a police car had caught up to him, then the officer got out and seemed to tell the guy to pull over on to a side street for a talking to. The weather seemed to be either sunny and humid or sunny with a strong headwind, depending on which way we were running – temp was in the upper 70’s and it felt muggy. There were two water stops and I drank half my cup and dumped the other half on my head!
Triple Crown 8KThe race finished with nearly a full lap around the track… really a unique experience! I finished in 43:09 for a 8:41 pace. This was just my third 8K race but was a 1:51PR from 4/2012, and 4:42 better than the 8K I ran April 21 after a winter of not running much. So I was pleased with my results.
My long run was supposed to be today; it was supposed to be 7 miles (5.5 – 8 range) but I didn’t go back out for the extra 2 miles. This wraps up 2 weeks of my training plan. Enjoying it so far.