Ok, never mind the fact that it was a tiny little 5K ‘race’. There was no special timing chips or start waves or even web page. Never mind that it only had 20-25 people in it. That’s all besides da point. Because for the first time evah, I actually won a race. Kinda like Steve’s win (but mine was waaay less significant than his). It’s the little victories that matter. And it was really cold (ok, it wasn’t supercold, but it was the coldest it’s been since like last winter).
And it was sorta hilly. Two sets of 3/4 mile long slow grinding hills. And there was Poker cards – he who collected the best hand got a prize. But that’s not how I got my win – I just simply ran my ass off. My total time was 18:50 for the 5K (6:04/mile).
I didn’t get anything for the win, although someone took my photo as I came through the ‘finish’. But I did go get a smoothie afterwards, cause my butt normally isn’t up that early so I needed something more to keep me going through the morning. The 2nd place guy was about 10 seconds back. I stayed about 10 feet back for the first 2.5 miles, and then snuck up and dropped him on the last .5 mile of hill.
After working for 8 hours, I then broke out the running shoes again and did my intervals for the day. Did 8x400m @ 80s a pop. Hit all my goals, including a 69 second final 400m. That hurt, but it was awesome too. Speaking of hurting, on last night’s 5.4 mile Pacers run I managed to eek out a 6:20 pace (over very hilly stuffs), which was seriously rockin’ the house. I was fairly psyched about that. And then I remembered I had to get up at 5:45AM for this little ‘race’. And then I also remembered I’ve got 10 days to figure out how to hold that pace for double the distance. Less phys-age after both of those thoughts.
So all in all, the running schedule is moving along well – and ‘on target’. Although the hard stuff comes this weekend…
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Nice man, congrats. God I wish I was young to be able to run at those speeds, maybe IF God smiles on me again. Keep up the great work.
Awesome! Those times remind me of high school cross country…sniff …sniff…one day I’ll get back to that speed…
Do you run the Pacer’s runs in the dark? How is it going now that its dark before you start. Just curious, as I may start up, as part of my marathon training gets kicked into high gear…
Good job on your win!!! It’s not how big the race, its how you win it!!!
I do some consulting with some gov’t agencies and see soooooo many people take the elevator from one floor to another. COME ON PEOPLE!!! One flight of stairs does not exercise make. LOL
Regarding Pacers – yup, in the dark. Always 7PM on Tuesday’s/Thursdays (at least the Old Town Alexandria Store). It’s usually a 5.4 mile course, one of a variety of them. The Tuesday one tends to stay the same though. Very little intersections to cross, all on sidewalks (although some are sorta dark). They also pass out free wearable reflector things, and some folks wear blinky stuff.
On Saturday’s at 8AM (or is it 8:30AM now for winter?) they do a long run of varying length – usually tied to one of the major marathons with respect to build up of distance. I did a fair number of the long runs, but during the winter I’d honestly rather sleep in and just run by myself sometimes for long runs. You should come out sometime! There is a group of us that like’s pushing the pace, and some of them include a few tri folks, good times.
congrats!!! so which race??? and you know the rule…or maybe you don’t…
no photo?=didn’t happen.
🙂
i want to find a race with 20 people in it. 20 really really OLD people.
Great job, man!