Fox Point 5 miler

Last week's training went well.  I ran a 2 mile tempo with the high school team on Monday, then Wednesday 6x800 again with the team, 2:36-2:42 for times on X-C trails.  It's nice to have a group to run with, including guys that I can chase (like Peter Haine).

I took two rest days (just some swimming and core work) to prep for the Fox Point 5 miler, with the intention of going for a PR.  Last year I hit a master's PR at 29:54, and the course was slightly modified this year but similar.  It was a perfect afternoon for a race.  I brought Nick along, while Alex had PR'ed in his first X-C race in high school (22:30, 2nd for Kennett's JV squad) earlier in the day.

We had a good warmup, did some drills, and I was perfectly ready to race when the gun (or Andy's "go") started us off.  John Mentzner took off with a couple of other guys, and I followed Chris Ritchie and a couple others to a 5:37 first mile, which I knew instantly had been too fast.  I was hoping to hit 5:50 and then hold that pace for at least a couple more miles, but instead I dropped immediately to 6:00 pace.  By mile 4, I had been passed by several people, including two other master's runners (Lance Powers and Phil Erwin), and my 6:14 mile destroyed any shot at a PR.  I came back the last mile in 5:56 on the heels of Lance and Phil (outkicking a youngster to the finish), for a 29:59 finishing time.  Certainly NOT the way to run it.  

Nick PR'ed as well with 34:37, and we both got 3rd in our divisions.  We did a mile or so warmdown and ate burgers and dogs; this is my favorite race for the after-event food!  It was nice to see Jasmin Lepir up and running again after his lower leg injury a couple weeks back.  He will be back in front of me soon.

I am relatively sure I could have run 15-20 seconds faster if I had started at 5:50/5:50 instead of 5:37/ 6:02, but it was a perfect night and I was warmed up and ready to go at the start, and simply got a bit too excited.

Nick and I ran 7 on Sunday.  Tuesday I hit a course PR for a very hilly 8 mile loop tempo run (GPS says 940 feet of elevation gain) ending up in 56:41.  Continuing to hit PR's or near-PR's bodes well for the last few races of the season, including the Great Bay 5k, where I have my Master's PR (2008) for 5k.

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Darin