Where's the Donuts?

Fewer miles than I planned, but a nice run out to Illahee State Park and back. I skipped the last downhill to the beach at Illahee because it's a bear to get back up and the run has a few decent hills already on the way out. But a good late afternoon run, really relaxed. No pain, tightness or soreness at all in my hamstrings, which was a very nice surprise.  Good way to start the week.

Morning run on Warren bridge-Manette bridge loop, a few striders along Beach Drive near the end. Sun came out on a beautiful morning, for a good, evenly paced run. Legs felt good, even on the striders though my turnover isn't all that quick right now.

Ben comes to visit tonight, so if he wants a run maybe we'll go out for a few miles. Probably won't have time tomorrow since he leaves early. 

A good evening workout on a warm day (though "warm" is relative. I was talking to one of my neighbors before leaving on the run, and she complained about how hot is was. Today's high was 85). Tracyton Beach Road to Essex Road out and back, return on Beach Drive. It's a fairly flat route through the middle of the run, where I got a good pace working that probably crept under 7 min/mile, then a few hills on the way back made me work a bit and slowed the pace down, which actually was probably wise. When I was almost home a guy yelled at me from his garage on a street I always run down. He said 'You run super fast, you're awesome.' Let's just say I've heard worse, so it was good encouragement. 

I've decided to run a 5k in Bremerton this Saturday, it's part of our town's blackberry festival. I was on the fence until I heard that it's a 1-mile loop right through downtown that you do three times, which sounds like a weird race but in a fun way. We have kind of a cool downtown corridor that could be fun to rip through (if anybody shows up to watch, that is).

Last thing, this is for James and the city of Providence: There were three dogs on my block as I left that got out of their fenced yard, and the two corgis ran at me. They couldn't even keep up with my jog though, so I kept going. Then in Lions Park a little pug or something got off his leash and came screaming at me, all yippy. He got right into kicking distance and took a little lunge at me, but ran out of gas then. I decided not to turn around and punt him, it would have broken my stride.

Manette hills to YMCA and back, real easy pace. Nothing special here, but it felt good in the morning.

I'm pretty happy with how the race turned out today. It was my neighborhood race so I had to do it, I work on the race course and I live about 2 miles from the start now. My old house was a block from the start. Kind of a weird course, just three mile loops through downtown Bremerton. But it's kind of cool because a lot of people watch, and it was a pretty good crowd in the race, maybe 100 people. A lot of kids, all the high school x-c teams used it as a workout, I think (though the competition wasn't real strong, it's just a little 5k). I got beat by the Bremerton High #1 runner and another kid who runs for someone else, as well as the guy who takes first in every local race. 

Anyway, on to the run itself. Two mile warm-up to the start line, picture perfect morning and temperature. Registered, then ran around the course for another mile and did a few striders. I wasn't at all sure what I could do speed-wise, it's been awhile since I've raced a 5k (other than last fall's First Dam run, it's been years). I figured I'd use it as a tempo run, just try to stay under 6 min. miles. I held a pretty consistent pace through all three, didn't feel like I was laboring, and held my position the entire race. I thought I'd catch the 3rd place guy because his form was poor and he started really fast, but he was a tough runner and didn't quit. Probably beat me by half a block, I waited about 400-600 meters too late to surge. But I kept the overall time under 18 minutes, which was a goal, and felt really strong. I just didn't have a race mindset going in. Cooled down with another mile on the course, then 2 miles back home.