Philippians 4:13

I got up early and met Gray for about 4 miles at 6am, then hooked up with the gang for some more.  Most of the time Gray and I were out front pushing the pace a bit, including about 4 miles of sub-6:30 pace.  Finished off 14 miles then got home to get the kids ready for their school's 5k fundraiser, the Sunnyside 5k.

The kid's hooked up with their friends and the start and I chatted with a few folks including Alana and Curt.  The gun went off and in less than 0.1M the course directing folks turned the whole crowd the wrong way at the first intersection!  I started at the back with the kids and burned it out to the front of the crowd yelling they turned the wrong way.  Curt was at the front of the pack and ran about 0.25 miles down the road before I got to him to come back.  He was trying to run hard and had kinda given up but I convinced him we could get him back up with the leaders and we took off.  As we were running, I stopped to say hi to my kids and their friends and walked with Katelyn for a little bit then took off to help Curt again after they told me to go for it.    Not too bad for starting at the back, walking with the kids and running a detour after a 14 mile warmup!

At around the official 1 mile mark we were within about 100 yards of the leaders and kept pushing.  We passed the first women about 1.5 miles and were reeling in the front men.  I caught up to the young kid in the lead and was hoping Curt was behind me.  As I passed the young man, he heard me coming and was trying to quicken the pace as I was approaching and then he tried to keep up...so he awakened my competitive juices and I just put the pedal down.  From about the 2 mile mark on I was running solo and gaining ground so I just ran at a good clip but not too hard and finished the official 5k in around 20:10 which was actually about 3.5 miles with the wrong turn at the start (I didn't wear my GPS, just my Timex watch so didn't get the exact split or mileage).

I then ran back to find the kids.  I found Katelyn (and Lauren and her mom Holly) and walked with her a little then got her running again.  Took the short cut and found the boys and ran them all the way home then back out to help Katelyn finish.  They both did great and surprised themselves that they could do the 5k and like it...they both finished strong and with smiles on their faces!  

This was my third 20 miler this month, so my endurance based has really kicked up.  I also have done well with the speed work, but it has been on the TM and now time to start hitting fast miles outside to improve my knee drive and toe off to focus on power.

Afterwards, stuck around for the awards and raffle (we all won something, they had almost 100 raffle prizes) and got to talk to some friends and let the kids hang out for a bit.  What a good day (running and weather wise, it was beautiful for the run!) and a good turnout for the fundraiser (~400 people!).  

 Did some yardwork and getting the toys out for the kids.  As I was doing this, I found that we had some guests in our shed...mice!  Cleaned up the shed, rid it of mice and found what items they had gotten into, a bit of a mess but it could have been worse and found them in the house like at our last place!