4 miles @ ~7.8 min/mi
"Dog up!" warns a woman behind me about 0.8 miles into the race. "Leash please?" she asks the irresponsible owner as we pass by her a moment later. "Sorry I had to say that," the runner apologizes as she overtakes me, "but runners could get hurt. So could that dog!"
"You're right," I pant. "Thank you!" As usual a warm and humid Memorial Day brings a Sue & Connie's Run, the MCRRC 4 miler in memory of Sue Wen Stottmeister, Connie Barton, and others who have passed away. After recent long slow runs (e.g., MMT/2, BRR, etc.) it's a chance to blow the dust out of the tubes and see whether the old legs can still twitch. (map by GPS Visualizer)
Suboptimal pacing? My middle name! The bright orange singlet I wear reads "12:00+" on the back, and splits by my watch tell the sorry tale of deceleration: 6:59 + 7:45 + 8:00 + 8:17. The official results have me at 31:04, beaten by 50 men and 10 women but by only one man older than me.
The first mile of Sue & Connie's is contains ~100 foot of drop; there's ~30 feet of up and down in miles 2 and 3, and ~100 foot climb back to the start in the final mile. My GPS, on the other hand, says:
| mile | ascent | descent |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 93 | 202 |
| 2 | 244 | 205 |
| 3 | 183 | 232 |
| 4 | 369 | 244 |
... which confirms my rule-of-thumb: subtract 100-200 feet/mile from claimed GPS elevation change to get something in the ballpark of the truth.
(cf. SueWenRun (2002-05-29), 2007-05-28 - Sue and Connie's Run, 2008-05-26 - Rock Creek Trail plus Sue and Connie's Run, 2009-05-25 - RCT plus Sue and Connie's Run, ...) - ^z - 2010-06-09