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.
Travel, Running and a Little Bit of Style 