It was a great day for the Burgener Family runners. Doone, Chase (10), Cade (5), and I all went to the local 5K Turkey Trot on a beautiful Saturday morning. It was sunny with a light breeze and about 65 degrees at race time. I warmed up for a mile, did some active stretching and the then a few strides to get the legs ready for the quick first mile I knew was coming. We lined up and I had my game face on. After sizing up the competition, I knew I had no hope at first or second. Three other runners there were my competition for 3rd. One of them, an 18 year old (Maliki) who beat me last year; one a 40+ year old (Chris) who I beat coming up the final hill last year, and the other a 40+ year old (Kerry) who I beat 3 weeks ago coming up the final hill. We were off and the early pace was fast as expected. The to fast guys were out to a quick lead the other 4 of us were running together with Maliki leading the pack for the first 1/2 mile. Then Chris moved to the front of the pack and I went with him. Soon we dropped Maliki and Kerry. We hit the first mile at 5:13. I thought oh boy that is too fast, but I was feeling good, so I went with it. Right after we hit the first mile Chris dropped the pace even faster and I decided to let him go, hoping to be able to catch him going up the steep hill on the last mile. We hit the turn around around 8:40 and he had about 100 yards on me. The was a pretty stiff headwind once we turned around and I was regretting the decision to let him get ahead of me. I really could have used him to block the wind. Heading back to the 2 mile mark he picked up another 100 yards on me which mentally crushed me. Mile 2 was 6:17, so I was right at 11:30 after 2, but I had a serious climb coming and was running into a decent wind and my legs were getting heavy. It was just too far of a gap to really let myself push hard and try and get him. He was fading at the same rate I was, but I couldn't pick it up. I ran a disappointing 3rd mile in 7:13 and my only focus now was keeping Maliki and Kerry from catching me. I was too tired to look back so I just tried to keep pushing. Little did I know that were almost a full minute behind. That early pace really hurt them bad and they were way off their normal 5k time. I finished the last 0.1 with a 6:51 pace up that final incline to finish 4th overall and 2nd in my AG with a disappointing time of 19:22. I then grabbed the camera and headed out in search of Cade to help him finish. I ran out passing Doone and Chase and finally found Cade a little mor than a mile out. He had run all the way to the turnarouond but was tired and walking back. I helped encourage him and keep him going until we got to the end where everyone was cheering the little guy in. He was tired, but happy to be done. Doone got second in her AG Chase 3rd in his AG Cade received and award for being the youngest runner and was so excited. It was way cool to be there with most of the family and everyone getting awards. | 