Well that was a fun race today! I was a little worried about it because the old Cary road race course was my favorite. I couldn?t talk my wife into letting me take the double for a 10K so I wussed out and decided to push Jason in the single. That actually was a smart move. Doubling the number of kids triples the effort and quadruples the likelihood of having to stop to attend to their needs.
I started up front as usual(I don?t like crowds). Jason was screaming ?Go, Daddy go, Go Daddy go? for the first 2.5 miles. I could tell some of the front runners were not to excited about that for the first half mile or so. I was holding a good pace until the first hill. I made it up the hill and felt pretty good. Since that was the only hill on the course I knew this was going to be fast race. I hit the first mile marker in 6:15 including that steep hill. That was pretty good.
We came to the first turn around marker and I thought shouldn?t we be going further than this. However, the road was blocked off and it was clear where they wanted you to turn around so I shrugged it off. I picked up some serious speed on the downhill. I was probably under a 5:00 minute pace for that section.
Then we hit the second mile marker and I heard ?11:49, 11:50, 11:51?. I thought could it be? My first sub 12 minute 2 mile? I checked my watch and that is what I had so I thought man I must have been absolutely flying down that hill? I kept pushing(literally) thinking I might have a shot at the sub 40 10K! We got to mile 5 and I heard ?30:24, 30:25, 30:26?! I know I yelled in excitement a bit at that point. I couldn?t believe it. I knew I was going to break 40 then. I really started pushing hard but there was a fierce wind on the back mile that actually slowed me down more than the hills. As I came up to the finish line I saw 38:50 and I screamed ?I did it?! I couldn?t believe it, I knew it was too good to be true though.
As they were posting the race results Jim Young confirmed that indeed we had turned around at the intersection instead of continuing on the extra .8-.10 miles. By my estimates the 10K was short by .32-.40 miles. That probably removed 2:30 off of my time. Still a 41:20 with the single is not too bad considering I had the stomach bug this week. I actually raced 1 more mile today than I trained all week!
Once I really get back into the Marathon training I know I will be able to go for my goals. I am probably 95% of where I was before the Marathon already and I only average 9 miles a week right now. Just think what will happen when I get back to 40-50 MPW!
Now for the real story. My wife ran the 5K. You all probably already know that she has been training very hard for the last two months. And she has been shaving crazy amounts of time off of her PR each week. Well I told her that the course was fast and that she should go all out and try for a sub 24:00. She did it and she obliterated that mark. She ran a 23:11 for the 5K. I was stunned. I couldn?t believe that she had shaved 3 minutes off of her PR in a single race and that she had PR by more than 1 minute in 4 consecutive races! Now the truth is that the 5k course was also short by .16 miles but I just didn?t have the heart to tell her that. She tried so hard and she was so excited. I just told her great job and that I was proud of her. Anyway, it will be tough when the next race comes around and she realizes how hard the 23:00 really is. She is working hard at it so I think she will be able to do it legitimately anyway.
Great racing out there today! I met so many people today it is hard to keep everyone straight! Let?s all try to do the Race for Grace together. It is one of the faster 5Ks in Raleigh and it is a terrific event!
See you at the races!
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