Awakened to the sound of my wife coughing, not a great start t the morning. Got to the course in plenty of time, got my bib and shirt, and started warming up. Left thigh did not want to loosen, even after a jog and a stretch. So I jogged some more, stretched some more, and ran some high-knee-lift stuff, and it finally came around right before the start.
Lined up a little farther back than I had planned (non-chip race). Wasn't that I got to the line so much slower -- it only took 4 seconds to cross the line -- but there were a lot of slower people lined up in front of me that I had to get around. It took 400-500 yards before I could run at the pace I wanted without traffic issues. Got to the first mile mark in 7:11, which is kinda what I had in mind -- low 7s early, try to save a little bit of energy and kick it home on the River Trail. Second mile was tough mentally. It was humid this morning, which always bothers me, and Riverfront just seemed to stretch on and on and on. But the second mile was also 7:11. I'm thinking, OK, I'm in business. Tried to make myself run faster even though the legs didn't want to speed up.
Third mile, turn off Riverfront, about 100 yards on Pike, then onto RT. I've run that stretch of RT probably 75-100 times, and I always try to push it, at least a little, once I get to the rail bridge. No different this time, even though the pain level was quite a bit higher than usual. Plus there was the incentive of people in range to be passed. I tried to pick off as many as I could. Third mile, according to the Garmin: 6:51. Got to the line and the timer just clicked past 22:00. With the 4-second delay in getting off the start, I'm giving myself an unofficial 21:57 -- PR by 23 seconds. We'll see what the official time is later in the day. But I'm proud of this run, because the PR didn't come from fitness, it came from mental discipline -- making myself run faster when I wanted to run slower. The kind of mental discipline I may need at mile 24 in Memphis to get that BQ time.
Official time: 22:01.80. Subtract my four seconds before the line (4.29 according to the Garmin) and it's 21:57.51. Seventh in age group, 66th overall men. | 