Condensed version - met my goal, had a great time and enjoyed myself Splits: 6:28, 6:19 (Jenny and the boys cheering me)
6:28 (+ :08 to sync up garmin), 6:21, 6:09, (Jenny and the boys cheering me)
6:19,
0.26@6:02 (1:34)
I was very happy with how this race turned out. I had picked up my race packet yesterday after work on Friday, so I would be able to go straight to the starting line this morning. Jenny and the boys said they wanted to come watch and cheer me on. So, we all woke up early this morning and got into the car a little ahead of schedule, just before 5:45 for the drive down to St. Petersburg. Earlier in the week we had some nice cool mornings where it almost felt chilly. This was not one of those mornings but I was prepared for that. Low 70's and humid this morning. I was used to that so although not ideal, not awful either. We walked from the parking garage to close to the starting line where I started my warm up while Jenny and the boys went to go find something to eat. I warmed up with two easy miles on a 1 mile out and back course from near the starting line. I think this helped me so I knew what to expect at least for the first mile. After the two easy miles I did a couple of striders and then hung out in the starting area. I was already sweating at this point. Fortunately there was a slight breeze, so I cooled down quickly. I chatted with a guy in a dark shirt asking him about his time goal, he said he was wanting to break 40 minutes which is what I was after, too. We wished each other good luck. The starting area was marked off according to paces, from 6:00 to 15:00. People seemed to do a good job lining up until just before the start when lots of people crowded near the starting line. The race started and right away a lot of the people that crowded up toward the front got in front of me and some of them almost instantly seemed to slow down. Fortunately, this didn't go on too long and the crowd thinned out pretty quickly. We headed along the water and then turned onto 2nd ave which goes out onto The Pier. My pace started out in the 6:30's. I didn't feel bad but not great either. I tried not to worry about the pace and that seemed to help. By the 1st mile marker I was almost at my goal pace of 6:27 (just missed it with a 6:28). I was feeling better now but knew I still had a ways to go. Headed back down the pier and before I knew it, almost at the second mile marker. I saw Jenny and the boys cheering me on and was able to hit that mile in 6:19 (although that was according to the garmin which beeped short of the 2 mile marker). But I was feeling like I had a shot at getting under 40 now. Mile 3 was up a hill. Not a very big hill but fairly long and straight. Just a little over 40 feet of rise. Made that mile in 6:28 according to the garmin but now I was even further off, so I hit the lap button when I actually got to the marker, which was 8 seconds later. Just past 3 miles was the out and back turn around point which was next to Tropicana Field. I had been following a couple of guys wearing yellow singlets (not the exact same shade of yellow but close). The 4th mile was going back down that same hill and I finally caught the two yellow shirt guys. I couldn't believe it because they had been ahead of me for so long and pretty far ahead, too. 4th mile was in 6:21 but I didn't bother to try and sync up garmin with the mile marker, just kept on going. 5th mile I was getting close to the guy in the dark shirt I had talked to at the starting line. My pace had gotten faster, and then I saw Jenny and the boys cheering me again. That mile was in 6:09. I wasn't expecting that the 5th mile would be the fastest. On the last mile I was doing my usual last mile count down. Holding on and counting steps if I had to. I had passed the guy in the dark shirt. The lead pack was too far ahead of me, and now I was in the lead of the secondary lead pack, which looked weird because I couldn't see anyone in front of me. The road was running along the park where we were supposed to finish. I had a moment of doubt where I thought I wasn't going the right way. I slowed down for a second to see if anyone was going to yell at me for going the wrong way. I looked back and saw the guy in the dark shirt coming my way, hoping I wasn't leading him the wrong way. Fortunately I was going the right way and finally saw the 6 mile marker and then the left hand turn into the park and the finish chute. Clock was ticking away at 39:3x. Too far to make it under 39:40. The last I saw the clock it said 39:41. I went through the chute and after a moment stopped my garmin which said 39:47. It was a huge race (around 10,000 people between the 10K, 5K, and various fun runs and walks). It was inspiring to see all of the cancer survivors and hear them tell the story of Susan G. Komen and her sister. I saw a bunch of my friends from the Striders as I looked for Jenny and the boys. It took me quite a while to find them because we kept on missing each other in the crowd. Finally after well over 30 minutes of looking we met up near where they were passing out the awards - it was pretty low key, just simple medals to the top 50 men and women and each race and a few overall awards. I was 9th overall and 8th for men. After we left the race we stopped at the nearby farmer's market which was going on. It was actually quite nice. Lots of interesting produce for sale, baked goods, other interesting things. We stopped at one stand where we tasted different honeys from each season so that we could taste how the different seasons flowers changed the flavor of the honey. It surprisingly tasted quite different by season. We bought a bottle of the spring time honey. Wandered on a bit more then headed home. ***Update - official results posted, it was 39:46 instead of 39:45
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