This race is a small local race that is put on by Franklin County Medical Center [the hospital here in Preston] and it is free if you don't get a shirt. My wife works there as a lab tech so her and I, my son and step son all decided to do it. It's been almost 6 months since I have raced and I am not even close to being in race shape but figured this would be a good workout that would force me to run a little faster. They had a good turnout of around 100 people. I've won this race the last 3 times I have run it. There are 2 guys I know of in the area that usually beat me [not counting some of the high school xc runners who are still involved in track for another week] and when I showed up one of them was there. I was wishing I was in good shape so I could at least make a race of it. After running a 2 mile warmup, I lined up to start the race. At the beginning we had the usual kids sprint out front for a ways. After a couple of blocks it was just me with Scott [the guy that usually beats me] about 10 yards ahead of me and another guy I didn't know running ahead of him. Somewhere before the first 1/2 mile, Scott and I both passed the other guy. I kept expecting Scott to run away from me at any time but his lead never got to be more than about 25 yards. I really wasn't pushing too hard because I figured 2nd was the best I would get and I knew my time wouldn't be good even if I made it hurt. First mile was 6:28 and I was closing the gap a bit. A little ways into the second mile I caught up and ran along side for a little bit. I thought he must have been taking it easy but his breathing sounded more labored than mine. This got me feeling a little better so I took the lead and put on a bit of a surge for the next .3 or .4 to put some distance between us. Before the end of the second mile I started feeling much worse from the extra energy I had spent building the gap. 2nd mile was 6:21 and I was feeling lousy but was still maintaining the pace. They actually advertise this race as 3 miles but it is even shorter than that. The last time I did this race it was short. They made a slight route change and now it's even shorter. As I ran down the last almost 1/2 mile straight away I could look back and see I had a good lead so I never felt the need to kick and the end and finished the last .71 mile at 6:18 pace. I had only expected to run about 6:30 pace so I actually exceeded my expectations and didn't feel too bad about the slow pace. I guess it's a good start to some better training.
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