AM 8 miles total with warm up, race and two short cool down sessions. Then a good helping of Swedish stuffed pancakes from Scaddy's in Murray. Overall the race was fine in Murray today. It was a 5K and I am never as fast as I want to be, but I also never train or really key on a race of that distance either. Planned on running hard though and after about a half mile mentally said "Oh I am here mainly to watch the team run anyway, let them go (I had a front row seat with a lot of them right in front of me). So I backed off some and ran steady up the first hill with a few runners passing me. At mile one I was really relaxed and had just passed Dakota, when a guy next to me ask what our split was because he had forgot his watch. I told him me too, because I thought I never started mine, but he quickly said, yes you did and it is on. I looked down and out of habit I guess I had started it. Mile One - 6:17, not fast at all and I don't think I even cared at this point. After the turn around I saw my masters competition not far back and Eric P. and Mel L. seem to have strong finishes, so I tried to pick it up some with out burning up and crashing, just to see how long I could hold them off. MILE 2 at 12:23, so a 6:05 second mile and they still had not passed me and I thought I should relax just a little so I could surge when they made their move, meanwhile, I was catching my number one boy on the XC team and hoping to gain on Natalie, my number one girl. Made the turn on Vine street and got a quick peak behind me and it was Eric about 20 meters back. Relaxed for a few seconds and decided to finally race. It is uphill slightly at this point, so I threw in a couple of surges to hopefully widen our gap and caught some people. Hit the down hill in the park and leaned forward and gave as much as I had. Thought it was all I had but just before the 3 mile I caught Tomy. He is young and strong and will do great this year, and it gave me a burst that I didn't think I had. Worried though and thought it was too soon, but when I started to kick I was hoping either he would come with or I could hold off Eric, who I knew had to be very close. At 3 Miles I knew I started the kick to early, but the crowd was now yelling and it helped me finsh it up. I passed four more in the last 100 meters and was fourth Master overall, one out of the money, but won my age group. I knew the top two masters and they are a notch above me at most races, anyway. So overall felt good. Now time to put in some big miles for the next one. Final time 19:11, 6:48 for 1.1 so maybe 6:10ish for Mile 3. Natalie hit 19:00 and was our first runner, girl or boy, from the 20 or so kids from our team that raced today. She was fourth women overall. So good job for her. Even if I hate getting beat by girls:) Early PM ran on pipeline 10 more miles at 4 pm so a little after the light rain and it was humid.
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