I am still struggling to get into that "race" state of mind. This entire week I was not myself and my head never felt like it was on straight, be it at work or running. However, this was a race that some friends from church were doing and it had a free 1K race for the girls so we couldn't pass it up. We showed up early and I did a brief 2.5 mi warmup down and up 11th. I felt ok but not on... Just before the race one of the directors came up to my wife and told her there was a special prize for the first woman across the finish line pushing a stroller. So she bagged her race and decided to go for the special prize. Since this was a circuit race I had no delusions of winning and would be happy with a top 10 but more importantly want to get under the 18 minute mark again. I felt both were ambitious with the way this year has gone. From the gun it was obvious there were some guns out today. There was a pack of 5 up front that quickly split to the three money spots and two "others", one a high school runner. Somewhere in the first mile FRBer, Steve passed me (I did not know who he was at the time). From that point on I went into autopilot. I was definitely not racing and was starting to question if I was even running. I was hoping for 5:30 and hit the first mile on target but that didn't really help energize me. I continued down to D St and went up the crazy steep block before circling around and heading back. The course was good and honest. My effort just wasn't there. Around the 2mi mark the lead woman caught me. I started running alongside her hoping to get carried along. We started getting into a groove until the hill by the Firehouse. At that point she dropped back a little and I just went with the momentum. I caught and passed the high schooler and just made it to the finish line. It was not the type of race I wanted and though I made my top 10 finish that had more to do with who didn't show up than how I did. I am happy that I am still moving in the right direction and continue to re-improve. But I really want to get back into the 17s so that I can start training for the 16s... I met a fellow blogger and did a cool down with him but since my memory for names is crap I will have to hope that he comments so that I can rightfully acknowledge him. The good news is my wife was redeemed from her last race and not only won the stroller division but also her age group! So we ended up getting a nice $75 certificate to Bambara that we dined at that night with the family. A great experience for the girls since most of the other people at the restaurant were in tuxes to go to the opera... I have to be happy that I am getting better and will leave it at that for now. One thing to note from my HRs below is that I am not in shape yet and need to start working on increasing mileage the next couple months.
WU, 2.5 mi: Avg. 7:48 HR 158
Mi 1: 5:29.1 HR 183
Mi 2: 6:03.9 HR 187
Mi 3: 6:08.3 HR 191
0.11: 0:30.7 HR 192 CD, 2 mi: Avg. 8:32 HR 159 For those of you who know me, you know that I am a number freak. I just updated my spreadsheet and noticed that the first two miles today were the exact same min:sec as my last 5K. How is that for consistency?
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