Today was just about time with Alex, not racing. He is fit from soccer, but not really doing too much 'running' per se, these days. I told him we would just go out at a 7:00 pace for first mile and then just go from there. He is battling a cold which made for a convenient excuse for him, as he clearly was not too interested in pushing the comfort level too hard, but that is ok. We hit the first mile in 6:49, and he said he he was fine ... I was pleasantly surprised at how easy that pace felt for me, I was not really pushing at all. We held the same pace & then not too far into the second mile Alex slowed ... I just slowed with him & gave some positive words of encouragement to keep him moving. Second mile was 7:20. The coughing of flem got a little more dramatic at this point, but I told him just keep moving, pace didn't matter, but we were not walking in a 5k ... which I believe he was ready to do at that point. But he was a good sport and kept moving. There is only one hill on this course late in the 3rd mile, so we just kept it steady up the hill without pushing ... I told him to hang in there we could still get sub 23 if we finished strong. Mile 3 was 7:48.
After cresting the hill & turning the corner to a slight downhill stretch to the finish, Alex turns to me with probably about 300 meters to go & says I'll race you to the finish. We gradually increased speed to an all out sprint, which of course he won, but it was fun trying to hang on. Garmin read 3.17 at finish ... we ran the last .17 at a 4:50 pace. Sandbagger! Did a nice mile cool down with Tim, who had a solid race! Alex & I then headed to the park to play some soccer & met up with a couple cousins who were in town for a lunch. All in all, a great day.
| 