Despite the wind, snow, and the cold I really enjoyed today's race. I rode to/from the race with Larry and Jolene. I always enjoy being with them. Jolene ran the 5K and placed (as usual) in her AD. Larry and I met up with Wayne shortly before the race. Wayne and Larry decided to run the race as a training run. I felt pretty good and decided to race the race. I met Tom and Terry shortly before the race started. They were shooting for 1:30, me for 1:40, so I knew I wouldn't be seeing them for long. I ran with them (probably faster than I should have) the first 1/2 mile or so and intentionally backed off as we started up the overpass. I gradually watched them pull away over the next few miles. The other runners I saw along the way changed, me passing some, some passing me, but there were a few runners that stuck in my memory. The most useful to me was the woman in the yellow shirt who was 30 to 50 yards ahead of me from just after the start until about mile 11. She had a smooth, easy stride, ran the tangents well, and seemed to be maintaining a steady, maintainable pace very similar to mine. I used her as reference point. When I started feeling like I was slowing, I would draw encouragement from seeing her ahead running steadily and strongly, but not pulling away. She dropped her Gatorade at one aid station, and then stopped at the next one, and that's when I passed her. I felt like I'd lost my tow rope, so I decided to push even harder the last two miles. During this stretch I passed two young men with iPods and a man and woman running together. I remembered these runners passing me earlier in the race. It was exhilerating to finish strong.
Splits: 6:39, 14:27 (2 miles), 7:42, 7:38, 7:39, 15:11 (2 miles), 7:47, 7:44, 7:46, 7:54, 7:05, 0:39 (6:37/mi) = 1:38:11 I finished first in the 45-49 age division, but was apparently the only in my age division. I don't know if that is accurate. It seems hard to believe. I know there are a lot of 45-49 male runners in the area. I'll take the win anyway. Maybe they were all afraid of me...not likely...but I showed up and ran hard in the wind and cold, so I'll take the award. UPDATE (OFFICIAL RESULTS): Time: 1:38:12 (7:30/mi), Overall place 60/417, Men 52/253, AD 1/15 I have to confess I feel better knowing I ran faster than 14 other men my age instead of working so hard only to finish first and last in my division. I was also pleased and surprised to see that I beat the 2nd place runner by 8 minutes. Still, Tom and Terry beat me by 7 and 10 minutes, so there is plenty of room for improvement.
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