Saturday, March 15, 2008

Back to Racing - St Paddy's Run

I was really ready to race again. I got up this morning and dressed for what I thought would be a cool but mild day. Wrong, it was cold and windy this morning at the lake. I had on shorts and took a very light jacket that I hadn't planned on racing in.
I kept the jacket on for the start and ran for about 2 miles in it until we got back to the start area, and I threw it to a lady standing on the side lines.
I decided I wasn't going to try and P R for this race, but that I would start out easy, and see how things went, especially since we would start into the wind. I did that, and at the first turn around I started to pick things up a bit. I didn't see any of my main rivals, but there are a couple that I don't know by sight. I started passing runners, and saw a guy that runs close to my pace. I caught him and passed him just before the turn around that sent us back into the wind. He doesn't like me to beat him, so I figured he'd pass me again. I heard him right behind me and he did pass me beside the lake. This didn't bother me since he is 28 and I figured I'd draft him for awhile but not let him get away from me. There was one guy up ahead that I thought might be in my age group, and after reading the results, I see that he was. So I'm glad I passed him before the finish. I finished fairly strong and wasn't upset that my time, 36:32 was a little slower than I'd like, but it was about 20 seconds faster than last year. Overall I felt pretty good during this race, I had ups and downs, but no serious downs. My hamstrings are a little sore right now, but that's not bad.
Tomorrow I plan to run an easy 14 with the running club, and then a week from today, Saturday March 22, is my 50 mile race.

3 comments:

Willie said...

OK so I wasn't the only one who thought it would be mild today. Glad to see someone else suffered with me. I was so cold all morning. Great job, you are in a very competitive age group. I did hear one guy checking out your time on the time sheets. I didn't know him but he was really interested in how you finished. You must be a target for a few people.

Adi said...

First of all, great time...especially with the wind and unexpected temps! The weather was much kinder to us at the group run this morning. Secondly, did you ever locate your jacket?? And lastly, good luck at your 50 miler this coming weekend!
Adi

Adi said...

Run well tomorrow!