0.5 warmup3.1 mile race
0.25 warmdown
total: 3.85 miles
51°F
Current:Clear
Wind: SW at 0 mph
Humidity: 94%
21:35.5 - 18th overall
3rd in age group (40-44)
6:58 pace.
mile 1 - 6:45
mile 2 - 7:05 (13:50)
last 1.1 - 7:03
I started too fast (wanted 7:00, 7:00, then finish @ 6:45). My focus was better than any other race so far, but room for improvement was evident. I had slept poorly. The night before I was sick (indigestion), and so missed my pre-race-day workout.
Things were looking good the last mile, but a huge dog attacked me at around the 2.5 mile mark. No contact -- the owner grabbed him at the last instant, but I came to a dead stop. How did this impact me? No idea. No one passed me.
Knocked off :25 from last year's 22:00, and :67 from this year's 22:42. Got a red ribbon for my efforts. Mostly flat, very mild inclines. The start bottlenecked from kids dashing out the first 400, and things settled quickly. All volunteers were a nice lot, very kind.
Met Liz Flowers and her friend Carl. Liz keeps a blog focused on her tri experiences. Tri-ing Like a Girl - Extreme Liz. We laughed about inexperienced runners not taking advantage of tangents. Geometry 101. We agreed too, that races are extremely social events, a good thing for runners.
A PR is good any day, but this day, my 42nd birthday, it was welcome, especially after a PR-less summer. I do not think the season is over for me, though. September 27: has the Park Ridge Charity Race 5K. Unsure what my goal should be, but the way I felt today plus better weather, no dogs, and another month of training, and something well under 21:00 seems possible.
Spent the rest of the day walking around Brookfield Zoo, and will sleep tonight like a 42 year-old baby.
Last year's birthday run: Running Hard at 41 Years Old
Tomorrow is a long run. Depending on the weather, and time of day, 8-12 miles.
4 comments:
Greetings from Thunder Bay, ON.
Congratulations on the PR!! I knew you had it in you ... just needed the right time.
And Happy Birthday, too!!
Thanks! But ON? Not IN? Oye, I thought you lived in rural Indiana?
Great to meet you at St. Mary's 5K! And Happy Birthday!!! You should have mentioned that - Carl and I would have made a cake! ; ) Don't give up on your goal, you will reach it. For some reason, us runners, we get faster as we get older....weird!
I stated my goal while I was just starting again last year (May), before I had a clue how tough it would be. Audacity galore.
Still, I'm hopeful. I did it a million times as a kid, so why not again? Then, I had no weight to lose, my back never hurt, and I had never had bronchitis. Now, I race smarter, am trained by an Olympian 5000 meter runner (Jim ran a 13:15), and, wear cool sunglasses. What more do I need?
I just updated my 2008 race list (on the left maybe halfway down), and think I can get close by the end of the fall. It might be I can pull it off, but reality might be next June or July.
Hard to predict. I thought I would start this season quick, and get quicker. I think I did, but the results were not showing up on race day.
Need speedwork? We are doing mile repeats Thursday night at Wheaton College. Come on by. We do a two-mile warm up at 5:30, at the Billy Graham Center parking lot (College and Chase, just west of the track).
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