We arrived, picked up our packets, and then found the rest of the team. My daughter and most of her cross country team and coach were running the race. I did about 1.5 warmup and did some stretching. I was feeling pretty good.
The race started on time and the leaders took off. My goal was 6 minutes/mile pace, but I wasn't sure if I could do that because the course is a really hilly trail run. I wanted to be controlled on the first mile and not go out too hard. I hit the mile in 5:57, which was right on pace. The wheels fell off a little bit at that point. If I heard the time correctly, I hit two miles in 12:58, so I slowed down to 7 minute pace. I didn't get my watch going at the start. The high school coach, Kate, passed me around the mile mark. I tried to stay with her, but it wasn't happening. With about 0.75 miles to go, I started catching up to one of the high school guys from our team. I finally caught him around the 3 mile mark where the course turns a corner and heads up a large hill to the finish. When I passed him, I told him to not let me beat him. With about 10 meters to go, he blew past me. I probably could have won, but I wanted him to finish strong and catch me before the end to give him some confidence. Right before the race, the assistant coach told me that he told the guys to not let me beat them. He wanted to give them some extra motivation. Three of them beat me plus the coach, but I think I did okay considering the coach is over 20 years younger than me and just finished a successful running career in college a couple years ago. I am almost 3 times the age of the guys on the team. I finished in 20:44 for 37th place overall. I was first in my age division by more than 3 minutes.
I thought it was a fun and a well organized race. I didn't do as well as I would have liked, but the day before was long. I worked outside in the yard quite a bit, had a late dinner, and didn't get to sleep until really late. It was not ideal preparation for a race but understandable with a family to take care of.
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