Philippians 4:13

Ran the Mountain to Fountain 15K this morning.  What a fantastic race.  4th Master (just out of the money), 1st in age group, 23rd overall man (3 women beat me, very strong runners!).  I feel really good about this race and felt that I raced it well.  More to come.

Rachel drove me over to the community center for the elite check in.  Met up with John, Derek Delancey and others.  Chatted with Ricardo for a little bit.  On the ride up sat and talked with Derek, John, Ricardo and Brett Bernacchi and enjoyed the viewed.  We warmed up with all the elites and I had a chance to meet and talk to Sarah Hall, Katie McGregor, Carlos Trujillo, Susan Loken and a few others. I saw Rachel and Janet as well and we got ready to go. It was a beautiful morning...sunny, light wind and about 53 degrees.

Went out right on target and hit 5:45 for the first mile.  The field was spreading out and I was running by myself in mile 2.  Hit second mile in 5:25 so I was on target.  I was a bit behind a group of 3-4 people at this point and picked it up to latch on and ended up in the lead of this little group.  Mile 3 in 5:24.  Cruising down the hill and crossed 5K at 17:15 then mile 4 at 5:24.  On to the rollers.  Our group was still mostly together and the woman in the group (Ariana) started to pick in up and a guy from Tuscon and I were going back and forth.  Hit the rollers fairly well from mile 4 - 6.  5 - 5:47, 6 - 5:37.  There is a good hill just past the 10k mark (34:54) and then the big half mile climb from 6.75 to 7.25 (mile 7- 5:55).  Ariana was still ahead and I was duking it out with Lucas as we hit the hill.  We passed Nicole Feest and I encouraged her to latch on and she couldn't.  As we crested the hill I poured it on to drop Lucas and chased down Andrew (Tuscon guy as well).  We were right with each other through mile 8 (6:05) then at the turn and downhill I opened it up again for the next mile to go 5:40 for mile 9.  I crest the hill on Saguaro and really just push hard to the finish and nearly catch Ariana and keep Andrew from trying to creep up on me.  I start saying my mantra "God give me strength" on the last 0.3M at about 5:03 pace to finish strong at 53:07.  I set the course record for 45 year old men today!

 I feel reall good about the race and felt that it was a good indication of where I am.  I feel that I ran a smart strategic race and was able to pass 4-5 folks and battle it out with the Tuscon guys by running smart early.  If I had run a bit faster early I may not have had the charge late to get those two great runners.  If I could have been up with Derek and trying to stay with him my fade could have been much worse than it was and likely would have had no kick.  

Afterwards, get a masage and go for a light jog with Nicole and John and have a nice chat (Nicole even made me feel humble by indicating she had no idea I was a Master's runner...thanks Nicole!).  I did this part totally backwards...beer, massage, cooldown jog.  Enjoy the beautiful weather and awards/party, have a bit of chow and talk to some of the folks.  This is a great race and I will definitely come again and bring Justin next time!

Talked a lot with the guys from the Banditos Running Master team that won Boston last year.  They are coming back so it should be fun to see how we compete, hopeful that we will be right there.  Great guys (Ricardo and Brett) so it will be fun.

Based on McMillian, this is a good indicator of 2:39-2:40.  I need to put in some good work the next few weeks to try to solidify the training. Based on RW, Age graded time equals 48:40.

Now for some pool and relaxation time..ok call it a nap! (Tangent 4...these worked and felt great!)