Race goals/strategy

There is really not much to say and it is probably not even worth a post, but maybe if I write it for the whole world to see I might feel slightly more accountable.

If this was a triathlon race I would say that my goal was to win (because it seems that sub-par swim + sub-par bike + sub-par run= ok triathlon. Duh. ) but this is a running race (unfortunately sub-par run=sub-par run), and I cannot really hold my own in running races now thus I do not care about placing and I am more concerned about the time. 

I think that it will be a very small race because it is happening in a town with population of whooping 2500 people (and I have no idea how they counted that since there is nothing else than a community college, a truck stop and a few mobile homes). But you never know, maybe people from other towns will join and maybe XC/track team from the college will run. But the students from the culinary program are supposed to cook soup and chocolate for runners, I hope that it is true and not just a way to trick people to come and run.

Anyway, since it is that small, they do not have a course map so I am not 100% sure what the course looks like but I talked to the race director (also working as my swim instructor/local swim coach/director of aquatics program at the college and who knows what else) and she said that it was flat (of course, this is IL) and fast with only one cone U-turn. I will take that. Although I am concerned about the wind since it blows there all the time. So we shall see about it. Maybe I will be able to put into practice the suggestion I gave to AM (let it rip when with tailwind to get some time cushion for headwind stretches).

Thus I am thinking holding low 3:50s. Starting at 3:50 and holding it there for as long as I can and hopefully I can do that to the very end of the race and will end up with 19:15. I do not think that 19:15 is that hard, although I realize that it is not very hard when you are in 19:00 shape and might be harder when you are in 19:15ish shape.

So that’s my strategy and my goal.

Now I only need not to forget charge Garmin and set it to show me total time, average pace and beep every kilometer and show me split for that km. And if I do not forget I will wear heart rate monitor to gather some info. And I also need to buy some one or two chocolate bars for my pre-race breakfast. Or maybe I can eat one of those 48 chocolate gels I received yesterday. Or one strawberry and one chocolate one.