Fall Fest and Across the Bay Bridge 10K Run 11/8-9/14

Running multiple races in a weekend is a lot of fun.  I imagine it's a good test of resilience to be able to race and bounce back.  Of course it's all dependent on the level of exertion and I admit I didn't go 100% on the first few but I did have a nice recovery and great race on Sunday.

Saturday was Fallfest 2014.  The culmination of the Special Olympics' Long Distance Running and Walking (LDR/W) season.  Kristen was active with the Young Athletes Program and I was present as a Unified Partner, racing with our team's athlete Nathan.  Nathan was pretty psyched to have me run with him again as we did pretty well at the Bucks County meet a few months back, netting him a few golds.  Nathan's a quick runner on his own and I knew from the Bucks event, we were up against some strong competition again in their coach/athlete duo.

I was also excited to race.  Bucks' coach Tim is a great runner and would  be a good competitor to race against.  I only chased Tim once in the 1500m and was about 20s slower.  I had yet to race in the 5k and 3k.

The day's events went in the order of longest to shortest.  We practiced at the course a few weeks prior to be familiar with the course set up at Villanova.  It's not very flat so I knew I wouldn't be around 20 minutes.  I also expected to beat Tim and just be content with that so I could conserve for my 10K on Sunday.  I led the 5K for almost the first full mile.  Tim took me down and I couldn't keep him within reach so I settled down and finished with a 22:10.  Not too bad.  Nathan made up for my 2nd place finish and our combined times were good enough for gold.  (Unified teams are placed by total combined time)

The 3K was next, with about an hour of rest, we were at it again.  Almost a carbon copy of the first race but now with a new competitor.  An athlete, Kyle, raced out to the front and stayed there almost the full race.  Tim made his move at about the same spot and passed us both on a downhill.  Kyle stayed out ahead of me and I took 3rd but again, Nathan picked up my slack and we took another unified division gold.

Almost an hour of rest and we hit the course for one final lap around 'Nova for the 1500m.  It's so great to see the competitiveness of all the athletes we coach line up and put forth a great effort  Again we lined up, I chased Kyle, Tim passed us late and we finished 1-2-3 again to conclude the days' events.

The Montco team did well and it was a perfect day to race.  I look forward to track and field in the spring back to just being a coach.

With a quick stop home to shower change and pack, we shot down to Annapolis at the Navy Marine Corps stadium for packet pickup for the Across the Bay 10K (and apparently an unadvertised fun run).  We picked up our packets, a (total BS) parking pass for $10 and wandered the mini expo before doubling back to Baltimore where we fueled up on lasagna and beer at Adam's.  We were up early for a quick breakfast but in no rush to get out to the race.  We'd decided we'd drop back to the final wave.  I was seeded in wave 1 based on my expected finish time of 47 minutes.  Kristen was in wave 3, Adam... wave 10.  The race officials were insistent that no one would be permitted to advance their start time but it was cool for anyone to drop to a later wave.  Even special requests were denied.  It turned out, there would have been no way at all to police that rule.  The joke was on us but it was a fair way to seed runners.  We knew we'd be finding ourselves winding through a herd of runners the entire course.

I was expecting a fairly easy course.  Adam had driving it a few weeks ago on his way to the beach and told me the climb was rough.  I thought it couldn't be as bad as the Ben Franklin Bridge run.  When we approached the bay, we could see that the bridge was far less arching than the BF Bridge.  It would be much easier, aside from the "fun runners" that were milling about all over the bridge.

With races like this, it's hard to take a wave of 2000+ runners and order them in any fashion based on speed.  We just moved along with the pile of people and worked our way to the starting line at that weird half walk - half jog because you have nowhere to go.  The column of people took up the entire width of the road so it was very challenging to get to the bridge itself at a running pace.

Once on the bridge, Adam, Joe and I were finding more room to run.  The next 5+ miles was nonstop dodging walkers and people that inexplicably stop to take in the view or take a picture.  It was mostly like running a 5 mile bridge while navigating 10,000 zombies milling about.  Kudos to them for signing up for the a 10K.  I'm sure their fees went to a great cause.

I happened to finish at the same exact time as the previous week's bridge run and it was kinda fun, almost like an obstacle course. I'll focus on the trail runs and smaller races... except for the Nashville Rock n Roll Half in April.

3/1/2015 Garsoe-Schermerhorn Memorial Masters Swim Meet Pentathlon

After nearly 15 years, I have finally competed in a swim meet.  I signed up for a really cool meet in Bensalem, PA, about an hour from home about 2 weeks prior to the event.  It seems like there's not very many meets nearby based on what I can find on usms.org or the local area's site: http://www.dvmasters.org/events.php.

The Pentathlon meet  is as simple as it sounds, entrants can sign up for whatever they want but are encouraged to complete a full 5-event series comprised of one race of each stroke (at 50, 100, or 200 SCY) and an IM (100, 200 or 400).  I opted for the sprint distances of 50yds of each stroke and the 100yd IM to not bite off more than I could swallow with very little training or preparation.

To enter, I had no recent race results to submit as seed times.  I had to guess on all of them.  I thought a while on most of the times and settled on a few times that I thought were reasonable.  I seeded myself at :27 in the free, :27 in the back, :29 in the fly and :31 in breast, and 1:15 in the IM.  Lo and behold I pick up my heat sheet upon arrival and I'm seeded fastest in 2 events.  I realized a :31 in 50 breast was something I've never been capable of even in my peak years.

Lay off the crackpipe, Aaron, you've never been fast at breaststroke.

The event was held at Pennsbury High School.  The venue felt nostalgic since 99% of all my swim meets had been at high schools.  I realized I'd really been missing this.

Watching the rest of the competitors warm up after I felt like my 250 yd warm up was sufficient.

 My events started with back.  I wasn't feeling pretty unsure of my speed getting ready but felt confident once I hopped in and for not having practiced a back start in many years. The first race felt invigorating.  The rest of the events were equally awesome, some slower than I'd hoped but some were also quicker that I'd expected.

Yep, I took 2nd in my age group... out of 2.  It was a small meet.  It was also the first of many.  I'm beyond excited to get back into more competitive masters swimming events.  Bring it on!

North East Olympic Triathlon, 8/24/14: Race Report

I enjoy triathlon.  It's a hard sport to finish a race in, harder even to be competitive.  I want to be competitive and in the top 10% of amateurs.  What I have come to understand after this weekend is that there is not much room in deviating from a training plan, no matter how loose.

I started a new job, which yanked me back into the professional world, demanding a full work week plus a commute.  What a nightmare.  I'm good at the new job, it's demanding and it's really cutting into the rest of life...  so between the new job and the mountain bike crash a while ago, I've cut back significantly on training, mostly because I haven't made time for it.  About 2 months of no training aside from about 70 total miles of riding and maybe one long run and I was already pretty terrified of this race a week before it started.  The thought of dropping down to the sprint distance had crossed my mind but I figured, I got myself into this mess, take care of it.  It would be a good measure of what happens with cutting training out for about 2 months and I'd take it kind of easy, more of a training race than a competitive one.

We loaded up Saturday night and were in bed at a about 8 to get up early to head down an hour to North East, MD.  I tried to recall the bike course and how hilly it was but really couldn't remember.  I knew it wasn't quite as steep as the races earlier this year so I had an idea that I'd be 25 min in the swim, 1.5 hr on the bike and I really really REALLY wanted to be under 50 on the run.

Check in was much smoother this time compared to my last race.  It always is when you have your ID on you and don't have to waste your time running back to your car to flip it and look.  We racked up an I sent Kristen off with the sprint-distance racers.  I got to watch last year's runner up destroy the field in the swim a full 3 minutes ahead of the 2nd fastest swimmer.  I learned he'd made the US Olympic team, pretty awesome.  He was in from the bike before the Olympic-distance racers hit the water.

I hopped in a few minutes early to warm up.  The water was comfortable around 76-78.  The crowd wasn't too big and I felt pretty confident in finishing very well in the swim, despite my plan to sandbag it a little to conserve energy for the bike.  With the gun I started chugging through the water at a consistent easy pace, focusing on maintaining a cadence and form.  I am pretty sure I did a good job with that but was having issues sighting the course.  I was consistently drifting away from the planned loop, adding distance, and feeling some discomfort in my left shoulder.  It nagged but never slowed me down or really raised any red flags.

About 200 yards from the finish, the top ladies started passing me.  No big deal, elite girls can easily swim a sub-20 min mile.  I assumed I was going to hit right around 25 minutes as expected.

Just trying to survive the race with a respectable effort, I tried to set no records in transition.  I made it out in about 2.5 minutes onto the bike and was ready to go.  I was loaded with only water and an extra Hammer gel.  I had no Hammer Perpetuem, which I was annoyed that I'd run out and not replaced prior to the race.  I'd consume enough Hammer gels to compensate, I assumed.

I felt pretty strong from the start so I let myself go on and try to ride at somewhere between full race effort and a medium training 25-mile ride.  Early on, I felt some signs of cramps pinching my left calf but they slowly faded as I rode on (I assumed they'd just cripple me when I got off my bike and send me to the ground writhing in agony).  Thankful that the cramps never materialized and riding along, I did learn something.  During this attempt, I discovered whatever part of my brain dictates the amount of conscious control over my level of exertion just doesn't exist.  I feel the need to go way too fast, which is, sadly, pretty unimpressive.  I know I'm a pretty poor cyclist and it takes years to develop strong cycling ability but wow- I was awful for how hard I exerted myself.  I need to resume my TrainerRoad subscription.

I assumed I'd be 1.5 hours on the bike.  I also thought that would be 25 miles, not just 23.  So I averaged 16.6 mph on some pleasant rolling hills, not passing a soul and being overtaken by pretty much everyone.  When I finally rounded a corner that took me into the recognizable town streets and back to transition, I felt relief.  I knew I only had a 10K to go.

Happy to ditch the bike and throw on my running shoes, I eagerly booked it out of T2 and back onto the road.  I was aiming for a 7:30-45 pace and tried to keep myself from outpacing myself from the beginning.  How hard could it be?  The fool that I am, I must have forgotten that the bike trashed my legs and not half a mile into the run leg, I was already pulling aside to walk-run.

I really eked out a finish, just under 3 hours and found Kristen for a minute at the finish line for a quick hug and kiss before getting back in the water to soak a little.  I grabbed some food and we split, pleased that we sucked it up and raced but I was still disappointed in myself.  The course was still awesome.  I would do this race every year.

We got ourselves home, picked up some awesome tacos from the Mexican joint El Limon then hit the bowling alley to try to enjoy the rest of the weekend.  We had a blast and really wound up proud of ourselves for getting out there and sticking to our race despite weak training.  Our reward was bowling, beer, and a little Wild Turkey!

Nations, here I come.  Expectations lowered for performance but I'll make it a fun race with my best season-ending effort.

Ghouls and Fools + Cooper Norcross Run the Bridge 10K's 11/2/14

I've been lazy with my posting.  Thankfully a little less lazy with racing.  With 2 more races to report on, it's been a good 2 weeks.

It's been a while since we've done a trail race which is a shame.  Making the race a nighttime trail run made it pretty awesome.  We had to miss last year's race for a wedding or some other nonsense but Ghouls and Fools is a great time.  It would be the first of three 10K's in 15 days.

My best time for the G&F 10K was 1:04:35.  I only wanted to beat an hour and have fun.  We made sure we were going to have fun and bring costumes into the mix.  I was considering a few options but went with a Viking.  Kristen was a lovable Hooter's Girl spin-off of my own: a Scooter's Girl.

We lined up for the start and before sending us off, Ron, the RD named his costume winners.  My first race prize in over a year!  He took me for a member of the Mongolian Horde but whatever, it's a win!

Time for business and we started off into the dark woods, always an awesome sight watching the snaking queue of running conga winding through the woods.  something I didn't bother to try to take a picture of because you should go out and see that for yourself!  And it likely would've been a terrible picture.

A minor change in the course just prior to the race inserted a lollipop loop pretty early on that created a tiny bit of confusion.  Some packs of runners went left at the loop, some went right.  I followed the guys ahead of me and we went clockwise, encountering other packs that went the other way.  For most of the mile loop, there was a good amount of time spent dodging runners going the opposite direction on single-track.  Before long, that was over and we were onto the rest of the course and some brutal climbs.  I left my Garmin plugged in the wall at home so I don't have the profile or any normal race data I get to geek out on.  Tough cookies, this time.

I managed to finish in 1:01 and 31st overall which was good enough for me to enjoy a beer and wait around to collect my award.

A week of rest later and a few days of some "maintenance run" and I was feeling great for a road 10K.  The Cooper Norcross Run the Bridge across the Ben Franklin Bridge from Camden to Philadelphia, then back across for the first 5K and another 5K looping around Camden and the waterfront. 

I imagined and planned on running about 47 minutes.  This is based on my lack of confidence in holding 7 minute miles which was my real goal.  But I felt good, I made sure I drank a lot of beer all day the day before to celebrate my dad and sister's birthdays as they were in town to visit and my sister, Mandy, was running her first 10K.  It was a cold day for it around 39 but windy as all hell.  Never have I had the wind physically blow me around while running.  Running a huge arcing bridge with very whirling winds allows me to honestly say we did go uphill both directions with major headwind all the time.  I saw some kid in a sweatshirt get blown like a sail 5 feet to the right when the wind changed.  

I had anticipated a good race.  Closing in on the first mile marker, I could see the clock was approaching 8 minutes.  I thought "no way; starting out at a reasonable pace is a concept lost on me.  I probably ran that in 6:20 and their clock was wrong."  Negative.  My Garmin confirmed the 8 minute mile and I started to wonder how that happened and how I was going to do the rest of this race.  Would I be near my goal at all or should I think about just finishing under 50 min?

The 8 minutes was a little demoralizing but I sucked it up and knocked the next mile off in 7:20, still surprised because it felt like under 7.  It's tricky to really know what that 7-mile pace really feels like.  I got a little closer again the next mile with a 7:02 and I was halfway done.  Maybe I did actually get some tail wind coming back across to Jersey.

I never really noticed how much bridges arch until driving across on our way to start this race...

Running down the bridge felt great, I hoped for some shelter from the 30-40 mph gusts between the buildings.  The last few miles ticked off, I passed a few more runners, got passed by a few others... then hit the waterfront.  Direct, nonstop headwind at its strongest right by the Delaware... I felt like a human sail.  I ducked down to try to give the wind less surface area to push on and powered through.  For a 200 yard run, it felt embarrassingly hard.  I had very little race left to run and I was excited to finish, I tried to continue on and keep the splits descending.  

PR Day!

The course wrapped around a few buildings as we began the return to Campbell's Field and I was amazed I had enough in the tank to have a fast finish.   I must be finally learning to properly run these things!  I clocked in at 45:45 with my chip time, very happy.  I realize now, in November, how far my goal of a sub-40 10K would've been early this spring.

The 3rd of our 10K series is this coming Sunday in MD.  The inaugural Across the Bay 10K should be another fun race.  If being out on the Chesapeake on bridges is anything like this race, it's going to be hard with it's unique challenges.  While inaugural, I think the race is making a return.  The field is huge at 20,000 runners.  Thankfully I'm in wave #1 so I only have to deal with a few hundred of them.   To make it a little harder, I'll be running 5K, 3K and 1500m races the day before because... why not?!

Get out there and run.

Nation's Tri 9/7/14: Salvaging a Race

This weekend was my final race of 2014.  When I signed up for it, I knew it would be end the tri season for me for the year so I had a lot of ambitious plans for it in the year leading up to it.  I'd bike a million miles, establish a consistent sub 40 minute 10K in the books and get to an easy 20 minute mile swim.  I had BIG plans.  Much of which never materialized.

Anyhoo, I was not really that psyched leading up to the race.  I wasn't sleeping well (which I attribute to some anxiety that I'd race poorly) and since the last tri, North East, I only ran a few times.  There wasn't much to do anymore so what is it you really do in this case?

Drink beers.

I had lined up the weekend to stay with some of my best friends in Alexandria, VA.  So after swinging by the Etihad Airways sponsored Expo at the Hilton and dropping off my bike at transition Saturday morning, we headed over to our friends' Drew and Lisa's house.  We unloaded and started to unwind after the drive and catch up on everything.  Being friends of mine from Penn State, we cracked a few beers to start watching the Penn State football game.  As comes with being Nittany Lions, the beers kept flowing.

I kept the drinking in check and managed a bed time of 10pm with a 5:00 alarm.  Another light night of sleep but I was ready to rock at 5.  Drew dropped me and Kristen off at 6 and I said my goodbye to Kristen and made my way to transition to prep for the swim and leave my gear with my bike.

Reppin'

Adam and I ready to finish the season.

 Adam was racked 15 feet away.  Pretty impressive in a 2000+ person race.  We had our transition spots in order and we headed out making small talk.  I started to put on my pink swim cap and Adam asked if I was seriously wearing that.  Well, duh, yeah, we have to...

Not when the swim's canceled!

Adam asked if I was still drunk and explained to me that in the previous evening's rain, the Patomac got a little poopy so the swim leg was canceled and that he knew about it by 11:00 the previous night and texted me about it at 3:30.  Holy crap dude, at least try to sleep.  I didn't bother to check my phone for any messages or emails from the race regarding any news.  We had such a small amount of rain I couldn't imagine it would impact the race.

The ONLY leg of a race I have an advantage over most of the field and I don't get to do it.  That only meant one thing to me: Bloody Marys about 30 minutes earlier than previously planned.

Pre-Brunch post-race bloody with grilled cheese garnish.  Courtesy Evening Star in Alexandria.

So we lined up in our corrals and in time trial start, headed off in packs of 9 from the swim exit to T1 and onto our bikes.  Having counted on my swim as my warm up, I managed to keep a less "erratic" pace than I usually do in the first 5 miles before really getting into gear.  I wanted to not repeat North East tri and save my legs for the run still so I settled in and stayed fast but comfortable, sipping at my Hammer Perpetuem and focused on maintaining a solid ride.

Notable about the course: as I mentioned, 2000+ racers and a double loop course means it gets crowded.  With roads shut down, the course was mostly navigable and fun but a few pinch points and one could imagine a few fights break out due to some carelessness of some riders to not keep right.

Leaving for the bike

Finishing... behind some dude in a t-shirt.  

I felt great during the ride, hopped off the bike in a 1:13 and realized, "holy crap, if I could skip the swim, I might be able to compete with the pros!"  The great time and the ride itself were very lifting and I sailed through T2 and into a steady trot on a crazy flat run.  After the first half mile I saw Kristen and stopped to give her a kiss before going on the last 5.7 miles.

Finding Kristen in the crowd and headed in for the kill.

I really wanted a sub 50 run.  I pulled off one sub-8 mile and tried to hang in there for the rest of the race.  I hit 4 water stations, during the run,slowing momentarily at each for only a few seconds.  It really didn't add that much time but I just couldn't keep close enough to 8:00 miles.  Still, I felt great on the run.

I finished in 2:10 according to my chip and imagine if I'd swam it would have been around 2:47-2:49.  We'll never know.  I was roughly just ahead of mid-pack in my division which is OK, not great but I was very pleased with my race after starting it in a pretty down mood about the whole thing.

My fan base was pretty unimpressed with my race.

Just a badass you should see.

Adam giving it hell and finishing strong

Done for 2014!

I'm shifting my focus to running now for a few 10K's coming up.  It's a relief to be done with the triathlon season.  I'll work out next year's plan soon but I'm excited to think about going for my first half iron distance.

7/10/14 Midsummer 5K Series Race #2: What have I been doing with myself?

So, I'm utterly ashamed of my training lately.  That's the race report in a nutshell.  If you care to read more on the race, go ahead.  If not, that's cool, too.

I have been happy to throw in a 3-race 5K series into the schedule for this summer.  Bryn Mawr Running hosts 3 5K's in Ardmore which are 3-loop races and a fast group of runners.  I did one of the races a few years ago with someone else's bib.  I missed this year's first race while I was away in Maine and I was happy to finally get another race in, only 10 or 11 days since the last one, of which all 10 or 11 days included zero training or even general maintenance/preparation.

This foreshadowing may give up some of the race results but pre-race, I was happy about getting out again for a race, feeling pretty great and pretty much knew I was not going to PR.  I was hopeful to be around 20:30.  No problem.

The one-mile-and-change loop is around South Ardmore Park.  That's 3 times around for you non-engineers.  It's on some quiet Ardmore neighborhood streets that get closed off for the race.  We arrived about 10 minutes prior to the start, jogged a little to warm up and test out a cramp or some muscle tightness Kristen was having an issue with in her foot.  I probably could have used a little more warm up but I felt alright and Kristen was trotting around pain free so we were ready to roll.

Knowing there were going to be a handful of sub 16-minute runners, I stayed clear of the front, about 6 rows deep from the start line.  I knew off the start I'd find a pack to pace with so it should be a pretty easy race.  I thought my first mile felt great, as usual when I'm fresh, and turned in a 6:09.  Not too far from where I thought I'd be.  The field spread quickly and I found an anonymous runner to chase.

All went well for about another half mile and I just hit a wall.  I tried to ignore it and push through because it's only a 5K.  I'm halfway through this so what's only 10 minutes of a little suffering?  Apparently on this Thursday evening, a little too much.  I hit the water station after mile 2, taking a moment to slow down for a few seconds before finishing the last mile.

meh

The obvious break sure helped my heart out.  Holy crap.

I hung out by the finish line, disappointed with myself, and cheered on runners until Kristen came in a 29 minutes which was a great finish time for her, tying her PR.

A 21-minute 5K isn't the worst thing in the world.  Especially when my goal is now sub-19 minutes.  What's bothering me is that I have been getting soft on my training.  I spent the last 6-months putting in some pretty decent training time with some effective workouts but in the last month, seriously slacking making some excuses for recovering after Black Bear tri and healing after my bike crash.  I really should have only lightened my workouts after Black Bear for 2 weeks, and aside from a sore tailbone, my biking injuries were all upper body: nothing that would keep me from running.  The lessons learned were that recovery is not a vacation from training entirely and I should have appreciated all the time I had to train before I started a new job this week.  Once again, I'm going to have to fit in 10-hour work days around the rest of my life... what a drag but I've got to pay these race fees somehow.  I joked during my downtime that I finally had time to train like a pro.  It's a shame I didn't take more advantage of that.

Next race up is the final 5K of the Midsummer series, I needed a bad race to fire me up for the next one!

9/28/14 Guilford Road Race 5K Report

Not often enough do we go on vacation but this weekend Kristen and I made a little getaway in Vermont.  I've only been to VT in the winter for some skiing trips so this was my first trip in the summer.  I expected it would be beautiful up there and it was.  We anticipated having a nice relaxing weekend and got to spend some time with Kristen's parents.

The weekend wouldn't be complete without a race so I surfed the web a bit and found 2 races: a 5K on Saturday morning in a town called Guilford and a half marathon a little further away on Sunday.  I've got an itch for a longer race but a few factors made this a no contest for just the 5K.  Four days earlier, I crashed while mountain biking so I had mostly soreness in my shoulders after the fall took me over my handlebars and into a brief handstand on the trail before collapsing into myself in a heap of bad mountain biker.  Fortunately, it wasn't too severe and there's only lingering pain in my upper body and it shouldn't hurt my running much.  Also factoring into the decision was some remaining pain from a bruised tailbone, unrelated to but slightly worsened from the crash and I really hadn't run much in the weeks prior.  I took the first 2 weeks in June off/easy after Bear Creek and really hadn't logged much training the latter half of the month.  A 5K would be a perfect distance to enjoy a morning run in rural VT and assess damage and some of my running fitness.

After breakfast, we made our way to the town of Guilford, about 45 minutes away from where we stayed at Mount Snow.  After the GPS tried to take us off pavement and down what I hesitate to call roads, we backtracked and still made it with lots of time to register and explore.

I had to scope out the road the GPS suggested we take

Even the Vermonters said don't trust your GPS

There were only a handful of runners when we arrived and only a handful at the start of the race.  I expected it to be small and was curious of the field's ability.  I felt a possible win if I could run comfortably and I wasn't sure of that after a test run Friday morning.  The prizes for the overall winners were probably the greatest ones I've ever had an opportunity to win: pie.  Strawberry rhubarb pie or an apple pie.  2nd place got a bottle of maple syrup and 3rd an ice cream gift certificate.  I wanted that strawberry rhubarb pie more than any crappy trophy I've ever seen.

The entire race field.  About 25 total ran.

Off we go

The finish chute.  I love simple races!

Sizing up the competition, I suspected that there was one runner that was probably about my speed.  Of course up in the VT sticks there's some dude that looks like he's ready to do a marathon.  I assume it's all for show so I line up ready to lead and win the race.

I've never led a race so with the start, I tried my best to sandbag it a little.  Really, I'd have preferred to chase someone but I couldn't really pull back any more.  I pulled away a little bit and had a 6:08 first mile, surprising the heck out of me since I'd really tried to slow it down.  Right after the first mile marker, another runner I hadn't expected pulled up with me and we paced a little stride-for-stride as we approached some pretty good hills.  I let him go ahead a bit so I had someone to chase and watched him conquer the hills quite easily and I'd hoped to try to regain some speed on the downhill.

I felt the effects of weak training recently as the climb beat me up and around mile 2, the guy I thought might be the best competition sped by and I couldn't catch him.  I need to work on building my runs so they get faster.  The second mile was horrible for me at 8:45 and feeling dehydrated.  I wouldn't even consider the hills especially hard.  The 3rd mile was much better and the 5K was actually only 2.95 miles so I wrapped up the race with a 21:21 finish with 4th place on my heels and, worst of all, no pie.  I suppose that on the bright side, I ran it pain free and my first mile was among my fastest while feeling ultra easy.  I've also forgotten the IT band pain I was experiencing only 2 months ago.  What a relief that turned into nothing!  Not a great race but far from the worst.

Two happy finishers.

This was my first race in my Newtons.  These are pretty great road shoes and I'm looking forward to putting more miles on them.  They're very different from anything else I've worn and I'm very pleased with them.  I'll be back in them on the 10th for another 5K and before then I'll be doing some solo open water swims while at Raystown Lake this weekend.  

Thanks for reading!