My eldest son is 15 now and my days of beating him in anything shorter than a half marathon are behind me. But I'm ok with it. Really, I am. :)
My second year running this race. It's one of the premiere running events in Boise. There's the Race to Robie Creek in the spring and Barber to Boise in the fall. All of the other races, including the two marathons, really pale in comparison. It begins at Barber Park on the Boise River and on the northeastern edge of town. From there its mostly flat or slightly downhill along the river to the finish line inside Bronco Stadium.
As for the race: I lost touch with Martin w/in the first mile. There are not a lot of younger runners in this race and he was shooting for an age division win. Based upon last year's results, I told him he had an excellent shot. After the race, he told me that he got a little freaked out when the 5kers merged with the 10k runners at the stadium and he could see lots of younger kids who were suddenly in front of him.
Can you asphyxiate on half a cup of water from an aid station? I certainly tried. About mile 2.5 I tried to get down a cup of water at full speed. I've probably run a couple dozen of these races over the past 2+ years and I STILL cannot down water while running. It amazes me to watch some of these runners on TV grab a cup and down it with one swig. If I haven't acquired that skill by now I don't know that I ever will.
Splits:
Mile 1- 7:04; Mile 2- 7:06; Mile 3- 7:13; Mile 4- 7:16; Mile 5- 7:14; Mile 6- 7:13; .2- 6:44.
That's a new PR by about a minute and a half. One thing that really helped this year as compared to last year was they finally went to a wave start w/ four different groups. The course funnels everyone onto the narrow Boise River Greenbelt which is beautiful but not really conducive to such a large race.
I felt like I went out a little too fast the first couple of miles trying to keep Martin in sight. He just got stronger and so I backed it off a touch and found a nice pace that I was able to repeat the rest of the race. To cap it all off we had a nice pancake breakfast, live music, and some nice photos/video of Martin and I on the hallowed blue turf of Bronco Stadium. A pretty good day. | 