Nice flat course on a beautiful fall day! Plan was to pace Alex to a pr of 19:30, was 19:55. First 2 were 6:15, 6:25, he was 2steps ahead of me the whole way. At Mile 2, my calf was feeling a little tight, so I told him to finish strong, I might not go with him. He told me to toughen up! I stayed close, but let him go, the last thing I needed to do was find myself on the losing end of an all out sprint the last tenth. I had told him last night we would race the last tenth, and he told me to 'bring it on!' His pace slowed a little the last mile, but he looked over his shoulder a couple times to see how close I was. I honestly believe that no matter how fast I would have run, he had no intentions of letting me pass him! He finished in 19:35, I was 10 seconds behind him, probably 5 at the 3 mile mark. I refrained from a finishing kick, but he already had me beat. I am proud of him, and actually am glad he just had a 20 second pr, the more times he gets a new pr will only motivate him to keep working harder, versus having an A+performance and having a let down in his next race. Slow and steady is improvement is best. His mind was mostly on his homecoming dance tonight anyway ... a much more exciting event! Just being right behind him made him push a little harder ... the first of many times I will be chasing him I am sure! I had a chat with the female masters winner after the race, he was listening pretty intently, she is also a trainer/running coach. I think the conversation inspired him, because when we got in the car, he asked me to put a training plan together for him for the winter to take him to the next level. Good stuff, I hope he follows through with the commitment ... it will help us both improve if we are doing several key workouts a week together.
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