Almost World Famous YMCA Chili Run

Saturday morning I will be running the Almost World Famous YMCA Chili Run. This Saturday will be my third time at the race however it will be my first time to run in the 15 K division. I have competed in the 5K twice.

Racing 15 Kilometers is a weird distance for me. I have several questions about pacing. 9.3 miles is too long to go hard but too short to just cruse at a nice pace. I’m kind of stuck in the middle, so to speak.

My running group is treating this as a training run but I can’t treat it as a training run. A training run starts in my driveway and ends in my driveway. When you finish a training run you don’t get a t-shirt. When you do a training run you don’t have to register on active(dot)com. At the end of a training run you don’t hang out to see if you placed in your age group. This is a race not a training run.

Now it by no means is this race my ‘A’ race. If anything I am training thru this race, but I know that after the Star-spangle Banner is sung I’m going to get a kick of adrenaline and then it will be game time. I’ve got too much testosterone in me to let this be a training run.

Pre – Pre – Race Plan

The pre- pre- race plan will start tomorrow. I want eat a lot of carbohydrates & calories the night before. Last race didn’t eat so well. And guess what – I didn’t run so well either.

Friday night if my wife and child don’t have other plans, I hope to watch a movie. I've got two new movies in from netfilx – Ironman & 10,000 BC. Then after the movie (or before) I thinking about doing some Yoga. The idea is for the Movie & the Yoga to help take my mind off of the race. I’ve notice that I have trouble getting to sleep the night before I race.

Pre – Race Plan

I will either go to Waffle House for my usually ‘Winners Waffle’ or I might try something new. I’ve heard that a good breakfast run is a Bagle with Peanut Butter. I’ve been told that is gives you a good mix of carbohydrates & protein.

Race Plan

I’m thinking that nine minute miles should be do-able. That would be a time of 81 minutes (1:21:00). I’ve made a set list for my ipod with just enough tunes to cover 82 minutes. I know it will repeat when it gets to the end but I want to use the short play list to make me try to hit my goal time because I don’t want to hear the same song twice. That maybe a little crazy but isn’t crazy doing the same thing over and over again hoping to get the same results, crazy?


So that’s my plan. Eat Right, Sleep Good, Eat Right Again, and Run an Even Pace. I’m not going to worry about negative splits. My focus will be run 9 minute miles or better. Who knows how it will turn out? However I hope there is some good chili at the Almost World Famous Chili Run.