The race was Thursday June 9. Forecast was for 100 degrees and humid. Yikes. If that forecast held there was no chance of a PB. But luckily thunderstorms moved through 2 hours before the race lowering the temp into the low 80's but it was still very humid. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to convert to metric - and all my splits were in miles too. other than name of the race no other km's to be found).
It's point to point so bussed to the start. Then a nice easy 30 minute warm up. Ended up being around 950 people in the race (more than the population of the town LOL) so it was pretty crowded at the start line. Apparently this race draws a lot of fast runners looking to go sub 15 so I put myself in the third row back from the front.
Gun goes off and it's an immediate right hand turn and downhill. In fact the first 2 miles are downhill. Blitzed through the first mile in 6:10. Felt good so kept my cadence for the second mile. It wasn't as steep a downhill but still managed 6:20 pace. At this pace I'm going to kill my 20 minute goal. But then my right hamstring decided to protest against all the downhill running. And then my right achilles decided to join in the protest. Come on guys - only 6 minutes and change and I'll get you some beer. Relax. But they were having none of it. And the third mile is flat. And the high humidity is starting to take it's toll on me. Things were getting interesting.
Then a 67 year old guy pulls along side, gives me a "who do you think you are" look and pulls ahead. Now it's on. Damn you leg we must beat a guy who's 26 years older than us. But by now my pace had dropped so it was going to be close to break 20 minutes. 1/4 of a mile to go and I persuaded my leg to join in and kick. Sprinted to the finish and saw the clock - 19:45. Final time was 19:47. Sweeeeeet. Finished 65 overall and 5/36 in the 40-44 age group. And I beat the 67 year old by 5 seconds. This guy should race Ed Whitlock. 2 genetic freaks racing each other. My money would be on Ed.
Then it was off to watch the basketball finals with the guys from work (no hockey game so we settled
). I sat at the bar with by achilles in wrapped in an ice pack which helped. Now it's home to rest and think about my next challenge. Maybe run a fall marathon. Never done one of those before.
(If I new how to do it, I would reference the recently posted topic of the benefits of warming up.