Skipped my morning run because I'm in the middle of a head cold. It will hurt the mileage this week, but I really needed the rest.
The local track club has a 4-part 2-mile race series alternating between road and XC courses. I missed the first one. Had a lot of fun with this one tonight. It was 89°F with a 77°F dew point coupled with poor footing and a poorly marked hilly course. Time is meaningless. I had low expectations due to the cold and general lack of sharpness from base building.
The usual suspects were there. The guy I respectfully refer to as "local hero" (LH) predictably took it out hard and I hung back with a small pack of HS students. Hit the 1/2 mile mark in 2:22 and was 5 or more seconds back of LH. After a bit I passed the guys in my pack and started working up to LH.
2 seconds back at the mile (4:56). The course was only marked by a painted line. White for the first mile, bronze for the second. Very poor choice of color for the second mile as it is the color of dead grass and was practically invisible. Literally invisible for my colorblind training partner. 2nd mile used the hills in the park (woohoo!) and I moved up to LH's shoulder. Around 1.5 miles we lost the bronze line and wandered around for a bit trying to find it. Resumed chasing LH. Tried to get around him but the course was too tight. Finally got by him before the final turn and opened up full throttle. I got a jump on the sprint and thought I had him. But he creeped past my right shoulder about 30m out and took the win.
Quick takes:
- Lots of fun in this low-key race. I was happy to hang with LH since he's in decent shape and I'm in base building mode, though he clearly has a gear that I can't quite match. Will have to try to gain control of the race for the next one before we hit the hills.
- I was really pleased with my kick. I lose a lot of places in the final kick, but this was one of my better sprints. It was nice to find my top gear and see what it could do.
- I never felt terribly uncomfortable. I thought a short race like this in the heat would be brutal, but I felt strong all the way. There's more in there. I think the increased strength from weight lifting is peeking through.
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