YAHOO!!! KIM GOT HER GOLDEN TICKET TO SGM!!! CONGRATS KIM!!!

Now as far as the race...... I would say very so-so for me. But certainly better than the Ephraim 5K a few weeks ago. I'll give myself a C+. On paper I should be in the 18's but lately I've had trouble getting below 19. Thing is at the end of the race I really felt like I'd given a hard effort and felt about as spent as I ever have for a 5K. Kind of a bummer that my 5K and 10K pace is so similar. I guess it was a little warm and most runners I talked to who had run it before were off on times. Kim says I'm being too hard on myself with the C+ grade but I'm sticking to it! Heck I've run an 18:36 5K in training in March so I should be able to go sub-19 regularly in a race environment I would think!

So need to figure what the issue is. I think most likely it's just weariness from building up mileage recently (quite a few 70+ mile weeks as of late, plus I didn't really taper for this race), but maybe even more so are these lingering lower abdomen and groin pains that I've had since the back-to-back 1/2 marathon & 10K races in April (Note to SELF: DON'T DO UNPLANNED RACES A WEEK AFTER ANOTHER HARD RACE!!! This may work when you are younger but for a Masters guy I don't think it is WISE!). I didn't feel like the abdomen/groin pains affected me while I was racing but I think maybe they affected the nervous system side of things. Sorry WBR teammates but I think I will be needing to run a bit less aggressive than usual this year.

I DID like leaving the garmin at home and just using a regular stopwatch and doing more of run by feel. Interestingly enough through the first 2 miles I ran almost exactly according to what I had planned on doing with the garmen. Go out just under 6 min pace and try and hold it as long as possible.

So I was 5:55 at mile 1. Perfect, felt about right but I was bummed I lost touch with the large group ahead of me that included Bill Cobler, Suzanna Thomas and basically the crowd that performs around the level I would like to be at. They must have been around 5:45 for this mile I think.

Hit mile 2 marker at 12 minutes (total time). OK a little off where I wanted to be (was hoping for another 5:55) but still averaging 6 min pace so OK.

OK now the dang hills of mile 3. This is where I died. This is where the mental toughness thing is just so hard for me. It didn't help that I found myself in a no-mans-land with no other runners close enough in front of me to provide motivation. I try thinking in my head what Paul told me about "Embracing the Pain" and kept thinking to myself "Embrace the pain....embrace the pain". It helped for a while but I still feel like I kind of gave up on the uphill.

Also tried Sasha's grunting routine during the last 1/2 mile or so. I think this did help me recover a bit after the uphill but I need to toughen up a little sooner. I was thinking I was going to finish without being passed by anyone but DANG another master runner (57 yrs old it turns out) blew past me the last 1/4 mile. I tried to catch him the last tenth and closed the gap but I couldn't overtake take him.

I forgot to notice my mile 3 pace but I figure it must have been around 6:30 to end up with the 19:13 overall.

Tough field today in all age divisions. Would have liked to have been top 3 in 40-44 but I didn't earn it so 5th place seems about right. I was excited Kim got 4th in her AD, I think that is way cool she can do that on just 9 mos. running.

As usual enjoyed spending time with all the blogger folks, we had a pretty decent sized group. Also was proud of my son Jansen for doing pretty good on his 5K with pretty much no training (just over 24 minutes I think).

AND A HUMUNGOUS THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO PUT IN KIM'S NAME FOR THE SGM TICKET!!!! JANSEN, KIM'S BROTHER JEREMY, BRENT & SYLVIE, THE 3 PACHEVS (SASHA, BEN & JENNIE) AND ANYONE ELSE WE MAY NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT. THANK YOU VERY, VERY MUCH!!! I HAVE A VERY EUPHORIC HAPPY WIFE AT THE MOMENT (WHICH USUALLY MEANS GOOD THINGS FOR ME AS WELL ;))!!!!!