Race Report: 10th Annual Titus Van Rijn One Hour Invitational

Today,I competed in the 10th Annual Titus Van Rijn One Hour Run. It is a strange race in more than just name. For one, most of the competitors do not meet face-to-face. Instead, you are to run on your local track, wherever you happen to be. For me the location was Potts Field, (an Olympic-style 400 meter track oval with state of the art Mondo surface) at the University of Colorado in Boulder, elevation 5320 ft. For another, the race is defined by time, not distance. All competitors must run for 60 minutes on a track, the winner is the one who does the most laps. Finally, the run is traditionally followed by the drinking of black cherry soda, in honor of the race directors, Andy Roth and Mike Persike, former Haverford College runners with a love of black cherry soda.

My mark was 32.7 laps or 13,080 meters (8.13 miles). There were several problems with my run. Most importantly, a lack of black cherry soda. Also, I went out too fast, coming through 4 miles in 28:05. I slowed down considerably for the second half of the run and, because of some tightness in my right leg, switched from counter-clockwise to clockwise running at the 4 mile point. This helped. Nevertheless, due to a combination of an unrealistic goal (34 laps), and monotony, I found it difficult to settle into the right pace. I expected to be able to hold close to 7 min/mi for the whole hour, but instead, during the second half of the run, my pace fluctuated between 7:39 and 8:26 min/mi . I deliberately varied the pace, resting during the 5th mile, then tryed to catch up. I was alone on the track for the entire run. Indeed, the track was locked and I had to slip through a gate to gain unauthorized access.

It was a fun challenge, making an otherwise ordinary day of running special because it was my first attempt at something.


I wouldn't recommend any of you participate in the TVR (it would be too long for this point in the summer) but if you want to read more about this unusual race checkout
http://runjunkie.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-far-can-you-go-10th-annual-titus.html
or
http://www.backcountryrunners.com/2008/06/race-report-2008-tvr-one-hour-distance.html
or
http://seeerikrun.blogspot.com/2007/05/titus-van-rijn-invitational-one-hour.html