Sole Sports is opening a new store in Scottsdale. A friend of mine works there, and let me know about a free 5k they were doing. Knowing that today is either the fourth or fifth race in the ARR summer series, I figured there wouldn't be too much competition and maybe a small turnout. Boy was I wrong.
I tried to get to bed early last night, but that didn't happen. At midnight thirty I finally stopped watching Most Shocking Videos and went to sleep. The alarm was set for 4:30, but I got up at 5am. I brushed my teeth, shaved, showered, and put some smell-ums under my armpit. I couldn't find any Body Glide, but that was fine. I don't get nipular bleeding unless I run more than 8 miles. Now I needed to hurry as I was supposed to check in at 6am. I ate a granola bar real quick and grabbed a Gleukos Performance Beverage that my wife had bought me. I figured I'd drink it on the way. It comes in this pouch with a screw-top lid. I opened the lid and promptly spilled it down the front of my shirt and on my shorts. It's so warm here though that by the time I got to Snobsdale, it was all dry.
So I'm expecting to see 20 other people, 30 tops, but there must have been at least 100. I signed my waiver and bought a $5 technical T. There were no bibs or timing chips. There were no prizes for the winners either. But there was plenty of complimentary food at the finish line and a couple of raffles.
I saw my new friend Jeff that I met Thursday night at the group run. We talked about how the cloud cover was making it cooler than the previous couple of mornings as we walked to the starting line. Then I saw Derek Detemple. I told Jeff that Derek is a fast dude.
At the starting line everyone shied away from lining up front. You know my philosophy. If people are going to be scared of the line, that's my ticket for a front row seat. Derek came up and lined up next to me. He, of course, won. Jeff came in 4th. The course went along the canal and a golf course. The rolling hills of the course were not nice. I was up front with the leaders for about a minute as it didn't seem like the pace was too terribly fast. Then Garmin told me I was running a 6:24 pace. A little too aggressive for a guy that hasn't run more than 10 miles over the last two weeks. Next Garmin made me french toast and bacon for breakfast. No, that was my wife. ChrisM's got the fancy Garmin that does that.
My first mile was 7:05. I did settle down and hoped to get faster as I went. But that didn't happen. (Funny how things never happen the way I plan.) About 3/4 mile I got chicked. She was the only female that beat me. I gave her a black eye after the race. The second mile was 7:32. I got passed by two guys here. One of them was pushing a stroller! Whatever. The third mile was 7:56. This is where most of the little rolling hills were. They weren't even that bad, but I was dying. I did pass a guy that stopped to walk. I knew everyone else was pretty far behind me so I was worried that if walker man caught his breath he might catch back up to me. The last 0.10 miles was 44 seconds. I was able to hold everyone off, but because I knew I wasn't in danger of going down a place, I just cruised in. Had I anything resembling a kick, I might have caught the guy in front of me.
I'm okay with my 16th place and time knowing I haven't put any miles in lately. It also proves that P90X is keeping me in decent running shape. Hopefully next week I can start running in the mornings. I won a free T-shirt in the raffle by virtue of having run all 4 Ragnar Del Sol relays. And while I was waiting the sweat kept dripping off me. If you thought it was bad earlier in the week, you should have hugged me now. *************************************************************************** Day 13 - P90X - Kenpo X Starting to get the moves down a little better. I don't hate this workout anymore.
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