Fun morning of running today. Kim and I went out at 6am and met up with the SF running group. Since Kim was running the IceBreaker 5K later she only did couple of miles while I ended up getting in 11 prior to the race. Ran with Hal and Allison for a little over 2 miles but then as I was rushed to get to the race I ended up pushing the pace a bit and running solo the last 7 or 8 miles. Most miles in the 7:40-8:00 range. Then it was off to the Elementary to try my hand for the first time at being a pacer for Kim. I knew Kim had potential to go under 25 minutes for the 1st time ever so that was the primary goal. Backup goal was to get a PR (these may just have been my goals, not necessarily Kim's). The course is potentially fast the and the temperatures were OK for racing (40 degrees?). However, with the canyon winds being very nasty this morning I was thinking the sub-25 was probably not in the cards but I was pretty sure the PR was in the bag with all the great training Kim has gotten in lately. As we started out we knew the wind would be pretty much directly in our face for the first half of the race. I tried best I could to stay in front of Kim enough to block the wind somewhat but I don't if it helped much as I think we weren't close enough most of the time for me to provide much wind block. We started out around 8 minute pace but it was too fast with the wind so we settled into around an 8:15 pace, finishing the first mile at 8:17. This was well off pace to finish under 25 but on pace for a PR so I felt OK. I was a little concerned because Kim seemed to already be hurting a bit after 1 mile and I didn't know if we could hold the pace for mile 2. However as we turned the corner during mile 2 where we got the wind at our back for maybe a quarter mile it seemed to give Kim a boost that carried through the mile and we finished mile 2 in 8:15. Well off a sub-25 pace but still on pace for PR and now the wind was mostly at our back the rest of the way. As we turned the corner for the last .8 miles and the wind squarely at our backs I decided to test the sub-8 pace waters just to see how Kim would respond. Although Kim wasn't a real happy camper at this point she took the speed increase in stride and mostly stayed by my side. The pace kept sneaking down, closer to 7:50 now with .5 miles to go. I told Kim the PR was in the bag and that sub-25 was actually a possibility. She didn't say much, just mumbled something about how she didn't really give a hoot about the sub-25 or the PR. I tried to keep the encouraging comments coming, telling her to only worry about getting to the next corner or next landmark. She responded very well and we held the 7:50 pace. As we turned the corner where we could see the finish I knew the sub-25 was well within reach without a major collapse. I told Kim as much and encouraged her to start her final kick, which she did in impressive fashion, leaving me in the dust as she blazed her way to a superb effort and time of 24:46! Yahoo! Big congrats to you Kim you did great, great, great!!! I'm really proud of you! Afterward I ran the 1-mile run with Tani where she did a great effort also finishing in around 10-10:30. Jansen also ran the mile and was pleased to actually be the overall winner, finishing with a time of 6:25. Tia was going to run the mile but is still recovering from a cold so she stayed home with Tyler. Even though only about 40 runners did the 5K I notice even if I would have raced I still would have only been perhaps 2nd in my AD as the speedster Carl H would have whooped me. I think I may have been able to give John A a run for the money however. This will have to wait until next time. All-in-all it was a great morning of running and spending quality time with family and friends.
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