Not too much exciting to report from this race. As I expected, my performance was "okay" but nothing special. This is my first fast running since marathon day. I'm happy with the way the this one turned out, although my time is a minute slower than last year.
Saturday morning was not as warm & humid as last year's running...would've been a good chance to run this course for a PR. Bigger crowd this year - they ran out of t-shirts. Nice shirt, tech fabric, says 25th anniversary. I found some guys iPhone & turned it into the DJ for an announcement over the PA speakers. I didn't run any warm-up at all since I don't think my legs are ready for any extra miles yet.
One fun aspect of this race is that there's a simultaneous relay event for youngsters that features 5x1 mile (last mile is a bit short). So there's lots of speedy kids up front. I purposely stayed well back from the front lines. My Splits:
6:53
6:54 - 13:47
7:26 - 21:13
7:33 - 28:46
7:00 - 35:46
First mile, felt good. Kids zipping past me as we near the relay hand-off location. Fun, but I move to the other side of the street. Second mile, ran the whole way with 2 young ladies that were local h.s. track buddies and now go to different colleges. They're home for summer and doing the race together. One of them (Jessica or Allison?) has a really cute way of running on her tippie toes. I asked if maybe she was a sprinter . . . but no, she's always been a long distance runner up on her toes like that. Obviously I'm not the first to comment on her form. As we approach the 2 mile mark I pull ahead of them and don't see them for a while. Someplace during the third mile I notice that the sun's come out and I'm feeling hot. Is this section uphill? {I've looked up my splits from last year and this is the same stretch where I wilted then too. } By the time I see the 3 mm I'm not feeling good. From about 2.75 thru 4.0 I am trying to slow down so that I feel better but I'm not enjoying this. The girls catch me at about 3.5 and they glide by smooth & strong. They're still chatting away. They aren't taking this race seriously. Soon after the 4 mm I feel recovered. Those girls are about 15 or 20 seconds in front of me and I resolve that I will try to reel them in. A woman named Sylvia has a pacer join her right at 4 and they power away from me. But as I try to stick with them I am making up ground on the girls. There's a long straight away here and I see my buddy Dirk way up ahead. I'm focused on making up ground and I do it. I finish 2 seconds behind the girls & chat with them post race. The one girl's dad is fast (he's over 50 and ran 31:30). Sylvia beats me by 17 seconds - she really flew that last mile!
One of our club members DNF's due to injury from trail run wipe out. This is the day that half our runners are doing the trail event Wissahickon. My WAVA is only 65% so I can't help the team. But I wasn't expecting much here anyway. My time is exactly within the range that I predicted. Funny how that happens with such regularity.
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no warm up and look at those splits! impressive. i wouldn't worry about being a little slower than last year, you are coming off of a marathon after all.
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