It was 50 degrees, cool and cloudy with some wind Saturday morning. This was the 4th race in a 5 race series. I probably would have skipped it due to the wedding but I am winning the series so I wanted to hold that place. I actually drove to the start because I needed to rush off immediately after the race to set-up for the wedding. Barry Smith and I did some nice slow warm-up miles around Chubbuck and the temperatures were great but there was a little bit of a SW wind at times so I knew we could have some headwind issues in mile 3 of the race. At the start of the race a nice group of 3 of us set a nice leading pace. It was Dan Grimes and a really fast girl that I did not know. Dan is a fast runner and I don't think I have ever beat him. The 2 of them ran shoulder to shoulder and I tucked in right behind them in a pace that seemed pretty comfortable. There were actually times that I felt I could pull around but I knew better. You don't get awards for being the leader in mile 2..... This was actually one of the smartest races I have run. We stayed together through the first 3.8 miles. When we turned on Cottage after the headwind Dan made his move and I could not quite match it. I picked up the pace a bit but knew I was right at my limit and I did not want to flame out at the end. He built about a 20-25 yard lead on me by the time we hit the 5 mile mark. I think I was about 10-15 yards ahead of the girl in 3rd by this point but I never looked back as I kept focusing on Dan. We entered the park for the final half a mile and I tried to close on Dan and did just a bit but could not catch him. I watched him cross the finish line just ahead of me and I took 2nd. This was actually a new 10K PR for me and I feel good about that. Here are the splits: 1. 6:15 2. 6:15 3. 6:27 (some headwind on this mile) 4. 6:19 5. 6:22 6. 6:19 .2 5:55 (trying to catch Dan) I did not stay for the awards or raffle. I spent the rest of the day setiing up for the wedding inside, because of the rain, and then set it up outside because it finally cleared up. The wedding went great and my daughter had a wonderful day that I will never forget. I set a 10K PR Saturday and never really thought about it until Sunday. We worked hard for her wedding and it all turned out perfect. I am pretty exhausted and feel like I ran a marathon yesterday.
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