2nd Race of the Year – A Success – Sort of

Last week was my second race of the year.  Another 5k, another repeat race.  I ran it the year before last, and remembered that I liked it.  It is a favorable course with more downhills than up. And for this reason it attracts many of the fasties in the city.  Since it is such a favorable course, I persuaded several friends to race it too.

The race, and course, and friends were awesome!  The course was even better than I remembered.  I hit my race goal, as did 4 of the 5 friends who raced too!  And my performance truly gave me hope that maybe I haven’t lost all my speed to the large quantity of junk miles I’ve been running.

The only regrettable thing about the whole race was that I forgot to double knot my shoes!  Rookie mistake!  At exactly the start of mile 2, I realized my shoe had come untied.  I tried to ignore it for a bit, but that wasn’t working.  I pulled off to the side to tie, and I’m pretty sure that was a 30 second mistake.

My goal was for my finish time to start with a 23.  I finished in 23:45.  So, goal accomplished.  If you subtract the 30 second mistake, and add that to the fact that I should have lined up closer to the front to start (could have cost me 10 seconds of initial weaving), I came really really close to finishing the race in the 22s!  I’ve only done that twice before.  So I’m really happy about the race.  And, a feeling that I’ve never had before:  As I turned the corner towards the finish, I actually felt disappointed that the race would be over soon!!

 

Downhill finish…I thought I was smiling as I passed the photographer.  This looks more like a grimace.

This weekend I’ve got my 12 hour race.  I’m looking forward to it.  The weather forecast is going to be a bit hot…mid 70’s, but the course is shaded.  And speed isn’t the priority.  So I think I can handle the heat.

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