Weather - 72 degrees, sunny. Weather was good for this race. It was too bad it started at 11:00am, because at 8:00 it was 62 degrees and cloudy. Last year the weather for this race was in the upper 80's and humid, so nothing to complain about. I woke up with a stiff lower back. I am painting the exterior of my house, and on Wednesday I was priming the bottom slats and I was bent over for 15-20 minutes. That was enough to set my back off. Fortunately running is an activity that makes it feel better. As I started my 2.5 mile warm up jog to Assembly Hall I could hardly move. From experience I know that the longer I jog, the better it will feel. By the time I got to the race site it was feeling somewhat better, although I was not sure if I would be able to give 100% effort. After checking in I stretched, and this helped, I felt almost 100% when I started doing 300m hard sprints. Seeing all of the racers warming up gave me a shot of adrenaline, and this made me feel 100%. I felt I was ready to go, and I was able to finally concentrate on the state of my legs - they felt very fresh and strong, I can't remember a day in which they felt so good. The 2 weeks of hard workouts, followed by a 1 week drastic cut down in mileage is a method I will want to repeat. If my back could hold out I had a confident feeling that I was going to be able to push a hard pace and feel good about it. With 10 minutes to race time I met up with Yong from the Wednesday track workouts. We are similar in 5k speed, although he has much better sprinting speed than I do (upper 60's 400m, upper 20's 200m). We decided we were going to key off of each other during the race. He has trouble pacing the first mile, going out in 5:30 or faster, which causes him to slow in the final mile. I convinced him to follow me the first mile, which I wanted to run in about 6:15-20. After the first mile he was going to pick up the pace and I would try my best to string along. It seemed like a good plan, and when Yong gave a loud whoop at the start we were off. We watched as many people passed us. I turned to Yong and told him he would be repassing many of these people in the second mile, so hold back. He was able to do this, although he picked up the pace at about the 1400m mark, and I let him go ahead. I did not have my watch on, but Yong told me after the race that he passed the first mile in 6:05, which means I hit it at 6:10. A little fast for me, but I felt good. I watched Yong getting further from me, but I came up to Margaret B., a kick woman in her 50's who always takes first in her age group. She had a hard pace going, so I tucked in behind her and followed. At the half way turn around I was still feeling good, although my breath was getting a bit over worked. Yong was about 50m up on me, but at this point I started to gain on him very slowly. With 1 mile to go I caught up with Ken W., and decided it was here that I had to make a move. I was still feeling good, which meant it was time to push the pace and see how much discomfort I could tolerate. It is the point in the race which fills me with both dread and desire - dreading the pain, yet desiring to push past my limits. I passed Ken and Margaret, and was about 30m behind Yong. When I turned onto Kirby Ave I had an 800m straightway to push hard, and then the final turn and 400m next to Assembly Hall. Yong was laboring, and just before the turn I pulled up beside him. I usually don't talk during a race, but I wanted to give him a jolt of inspiration. "Yong, 400m to go, this is the part of the race which is made for you - let that speed out!" He turned to me, and then he dug deep and started to go. I watched him pulling away, at the same time gathering myself for the final push. At this moment a young runner who had passed us a bit earlier, saw us passing him and he moaned, "come on, this is too early to start sprinting!" He was pissed. "If you have this much left you should have been running harder earlier" he scowled to me. He put on his jets and started to move past, and I laughed, feeling the agony of the effort, and the joy that comes from giving 100%. I followed Yong and the young runner into the final 100m. When I saw the clock I was stunned - 18:36, 37, 38, 39. That got me moving and I sprinted into the chute in 18:48, beating my old PR by 25 seconds. Yong finished in 18:46, so our plan was good - we both set a PR, and when we got out of the chute we were bent over, laughing, congratulating each other for our efforts. #231 z.m. - #144 | 