Fly me to the moon...

I did my Wabash Walgreens short loop. I haven't had a side stitch or side ache in quite awhile, but I got one today. It started down low on my left side under my ribs and switched to my right side under my ribs. Not sure what that means.

It was about 2.25 miles total. I did a warmup some stretches and plyos, and then did 4 strides. I am running a 3 mile road race in town tomorrow. I haven't raced in quite awhile. I think the last time was a 1600, 800, and 200 on the track in May 2019. My oldest did a track camp that summer, and they had a track meet on the last day that families could participate in. I think my 1600 time was around 6:30 off of about a week and a half of training with no running for months before that. That hurt, and I was sore for awhile after that. I was most sore after doing the 200 that I jumped in at the last minute. I was trying to get my daughter to do some running event, but she chickened out. I hope to go under 19 tomorrow, and I think it is doable. I haven't had as much mileage as I would have liked, but I have been fairly consistent for several months. Not sure if there will be any competition. It should be fun either way and whatever time I get.

This was a fun race. It was well organized and well marked. It was the first race I had done in quite awhile, and I think it was a good one to get back into racing a little bit.

My family dropped me off near the start line a little over an hour before the race start. Before my race, they had an invitational for Mattoon high school cross country, so there were several teams warming up. I got checked in, got my number pinned on, and walked around a bit. I did about a mile warmup, did some stretching, and used the restroom. The high school races started a little after that. They were doing the same course as us, which was apparently a course they used for the invitational for several years in the past. It had moved to a grass course at Lake Land College, but they moved it back here a couple years ago when they brought back the homecoming parade in 2019. It is part of the homecoming festivities, and the parade started about 15 minutes after my race started.

I made my way to the start line and started sizing up the competition. There were a few younger guys that looked like they could be trouble and some that looked about my age. I did some strides and more stretching and got ready to go. The starter was Craig Vergin, a 3-time Olympian in the 10,000 meter and 2-time World cross country champion, so that was really cool. The race started and there were about 4 guys who separated from the pack pretty quickly. After about a half mile, there was a guy in front of me and another behind me, and that is basically how it stayed the rest of the race. I think the guy behind me is a teacher at the high school because of some comments people said and the abundance of cheering he received. I wanted to stay under control for the first mile and not get out too hard and hit the first mile in 5:53. The guy in front of me had started to build about a 10 meter lead on me. It was a bit windy, and I knew I needed to maintain contact with him and try to get on his shoulder, but I couldn't muster a surge to get up to him. The second mile is always the hardest for me, and I knew I needed to focus to keep my pace, but I dropped off quite a bit hitting the second mile at 12:24 (6:31). The guy in first had increased his lead a little bit but was still within striking distance. I started to pick it up to try and catch him. I got about 5 meters from him before he looked back and saw me with about a half mile to go. By the end he had built the lead back up to 10 meters. I probably could have pushed a little harder and made it interesting at the end, but I just didn't feel like pushing myself. I don't have the same competitive drive I once did. I was well ahead of the 3rd place guy and didn't feel like killing myself. I finished in 18:04 (5:40), which was a pretty good last mile at the end of the race.

My goal was to go under 19 minutes, and I almost got under 18 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised with the result given my low mileage the past few weeks. I really didn't know where my fitness would be for a 3 mile race. I had done some tempo runs at 6 minute pace but never for anything that long. I ran about a mile cooldown before the awards ceremony. They did awards for the high school races first. The winner for the boys was in the 14:50s, and the girls was in the 17:50s. I didn't get anything for second, but I got a medal for first in my age group and got to shake Craig's hand. After the awards, I ran back to the start to get my stuff and then back to the car to meet my family for about another 1.5 miles.

I ran about 2 miles back and forth cheering on my daughter and her team at the conference CC meet in Charleston. It was a nice flat course, but my daughter didn't do very well. Her heels have been sore, and she was super nervous at the start. She ended up walking at the beginning but found her groove a little bit into the race. If she had run her best time, she would have easily been 7th on the team. This was only her 3rd race ever, and she has never done any sports except a couple years of dance many years ago. She also got started a little late into the season. She has one more race and can hopefully do even better next time.

I ran my housing school loop with a break in the middle to pick up trash at the elementary school. The trash was almost entirely discarded facemasks and candy wrappers. My quads were a little sore.