I woke up this morning and didn't feel like running. My achilles is stiff and my wife left to Dallas for a week. I am Mr. Mom (except not that stupid) and will be holding down the fort and taking care of Jaren until Thursday. On top of that I was beat from the funeral and travel yesterday. I knew that I needed to get up and run some kind of run, and I really needed a workout for Des News on Tuesday. Then I remembered that there was a race in Hyde Park that is put on by the Sun 'N Snow people. So I drove out to Hyde Park and did the race. It started a half hour late, which always ticks me off, and the course isn't a fast one at all. I just wanted to get some good tempo in, and was just going to hang back and have fun. After the first mile I got bored and took the lead. I led the whole rest of the way with no one really to push me. There were some decent runners there like Keith Anderson and a bunch of High School kids, but I was able to run away from them on the long hill pretty good, and then cruised in. My time ended up at 18:12. Warmed up before and cooled down after. Everyone with Garmins were saying the course was over 3.2. I don't really know, but I do know that I ran it almost a minute faster than last year and they had added another block to the course this year. I was kind of bummed about the prizes, because all I got was a hat that said "Overall Winner" and a blue ribbon. Last year the first place winner got a pair of shoes from Striders. They had tons of big prizes like $25 dollars to Olive Garden, $50 to Best Buy, overnight stays at motels etc., but I won nothing. They gave away $100 to Striders and a treadmill from ICON, and two little kids got them. The whole thing was kind of ridiculous, but I might use it for some leverage for future comps. I would have loved a pair of shoes or even a Trophy, but I got the shaft today. Oh well, that is how it usually seems to work, they give thousands of dollars worth of prizes, and I win the race and get the same thing as every other age division winner, except mine says overall winner! (Fastwitch -32 miles)
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