An odd afternoon start for the inaugural Jingle Bell Run in Port Orchard. This is one of those national fundraiser runs, I'm actually doing the Seattle version next week with my cousin. But since it took place on the Slug training course I couldn't say no. Mike and Brian joined me. Good winter afternoon to run: temp around 40, cloudy sky but no precipitation. It just felt Christmassy, and most of the runners had some goofy elf outfit or Santa hat on. Not me though. We let the high school kids sprint the first 400 as usual, then a pack of four pulled ahead and Mike and I stayed together 40 yards behind. We kept a good pace and stayed in touch, didn't rush and let the leaders drop. I left Mike at the two-mile mark or so (no markers, this was actually an extremely simple and unorganized race -- at the start, because they had so many more people show up than expected, the organizer finally just said 'no more numbers, just go run.') After leaving Mike I picked off two guys, then chased down second place and just about caught him. 75 more meters and he was mine, I ended back 3 seconds. (The winner ran away from us though, 16:37.) Then I got interviewed for the local online radio show (with tough questions like, "Is it cold out there?" and "You wore shorts?"), and went and bought a post-race donut from the bakery down the block.
As I sit here I'm a little peeved to not break 17 minutes, because I seem to be a little stuck there. But for a winter run without any recent speed work or even that many miles, it was pretty encouraging to stick that pace. So I'll take that, and decide this week whether next week's Jingle Bell will be an attack on 17 minutes or a fun jog with my cousin.
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