The Havasu Hot Air Balloon festival is this weekend. They decided to have a 5k run this morning as part of the festivities. During it all the balloons were supposed to take off. Unfortunately it was too windy for the balloons to fly. The race still went on. After running 2 miles to warm up we stood around for a few minutes and I never heard anyone say start but people started running so I did too. Dan took off fast like usual, then a guy around my age that looked like a good runner then one of the local high school cross country kids. We ran in that order for about the first 1 3/4 miles at which time the runner, the kid and myself were right by each other and Dan was far enough ahead we couldn’t see him. We went off road onto trails at that point as well. The high school cross country team trains on those trails all the time and the kid took off. I gradually pulled away from the runner but when we finally got back to the roads we only had about 1/3 of a mile to go and the kid was maybe 30 yards ahead of me. I picked it up and caught him right before the final turn at which point he went straight instead of turning and there wasn’t more than 30 yards to the finish. I must be getting soft because I let up so he could pull back ahead of me and finished just behind him. I didn’t want to beat him like that and I think it meant more to him. I therefore got third and the runner came in 10 to 15 seconds behind me. I forgot to stop my watch and it wasn’t a timed event. I think I finished around 19:40 though.
Later in the day I went and played soccer. My legs were a little tired and heavy. Near the end of the first half I strained my hammy and then got relegated to being goalie the rest of the game. I did run my watch though and ran a little over 2 miles before the injury. It’s mild so I’ll probably be back running by Monday.
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