I know, two races in a row! Not as fast as I would have liked but it was a good feeling to finally race again. This was my first 5K not pushing the girls or at a meeting since May of 2008 and my first race that I was going to the line thinking I was going to "race" since Aug of 2009. The deal is that my wife found this small race online (13th running of it) and since my grandparents are visiting for a school carnival and our wedding anniversary we had someone to watch the girls while we both ran. I thought it would be a nice way to get back in the racing mood and win but little did I know that Carrol brought in a ringer. (4:07 mi 18yr old). He was a very nice guy and I spoke to him both before and after the race including a cool down but from the gun he was gone and put about 3 min on me by the end. I ran the course as a warm-up which was fortunate. It was very curvy and hilly so I found out what I was in store for. Additionally, I found two poorly marked spots that I was able to figure out ahead of time. From the gun I was in second and that is were I stayed. There was a guy in 3rd who at mile 1 was about 200 m back. He ended up making wrong turns at both spots I had noted during my warm-up. I guess I was more than 200 m ahead at that point that he didn't see me. He ended up finishing third anyway. The bummer was that my wife was in first and though she could figure out my description for one of the tough turns she missed the second. The bummer is that by the time she got back on course about 6 people had passed her and one of them was a women. She wasn't able to make up the ~2 min detour. The second bummer is that though nice the "official" winner wasn't as classy as Paul is and kept the dinner for two prize the overall woman got... In her defense there was still about a mile to go and who knows how it may have turned out... In any case it was nice that we both finished 2nd and our girls ran their first "official" races. Not timed or a set distance but they did get their own numbers and ribbons for finishing... Mi 1: 5:29 HR 181
Mi 2: 6:04 HR 189
Mi 3: 6:10 HR 189
Last: 0:40 HR 189
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