Well...

Saturday, October 31st--Halloween and the CHS Hall of Fame 5K run. Well, it's not really a 5K, as in 3.1 miles. It's 3.2 miles. Each year, I measure the course and come up with between 3.19 and 3.21 miles. I have "lobbied" to "the man" to have the course start .1 miles farther down the road, but to no avail. Therefore, I have been left to struggle my way through an extra .1. Today that extra .1 almost cost me the victory.

My son and I got to the school pretty early (about 8:15 for the 9 AM start) on a wet, pretty mild morning (60 degrees). We were already registered, so we hit the restroom, checked in, chatted it up with some folks and pinned our race numbers into place. We warmed up by running a loop, the first .9 miles of the course. We stretched for about 20 minutes in the concourse area in-between the interior and exterior sets of doors. By the time we returned to the holding area, participants had been called to make their way to the starting line. I swapped out my running flats for racing flats. We made our way to the start, where I handed my bag off to my wife and daughter. After a couple of minutes of announcements and reminders, including one about wet leaves, we took off, but not without some confusion at the start. The starter said there'd be 3 commands, but he gave only two--to your mark, go. This led people to stop and then start again, stuttering, I guess. Anyway, I went out with a few XC kids (JV, perhaps, who, like my son, competed at the District meet the day before). By the time I reached the 1-mile mark at 5:35/5:40, two of us were running neck-and-neck. The lanky kid had a monster stride, allowing him to get distance on me going downhill. What he made up on me going downhill, I made up on him going uphill. (Maybe that's why my back is killing me. I panicked a little when i felt it at the mile marking; the pounding was a nuisance.) At the halfway mark, 1.6, I saw that I was at 9:10. (I was at 8:45 at the bottom of the hill, so I am guessing I hit 9:10 or so at the top.) That was where I began to pull away, not because I was going faster, but because the younger seemed to lose a step as we hit the hill top. I did stride a bit at the top of the hill, which probably helped. I did not look at my watch at the two mile marked. I was just thankful to be in the lead. I started to panic, though, with about a half-mile to go. I could feel that my strength was waning and that someone not too far behind was going to exploit it. At about the 3-mile mark, I heard 17-something, but I also heard the footsteps of someone making up distance on me with every stride. As I made my last right turn, I could see the finish line/bus circle in sight. A quick look over my right shoulder revealed that the guy behind was within a few meters. I pushed the last .1, with a panic look on my face, knowing that I had hit 3.1 already and had .1 to go. I drove my arms up the incline into the bus circle and outleaned a 35-year old! My 3.2 time: 18:46; my 3.1 time: 18:09.

Mileage for the week: 19.8

Now it's time to begin thinking about the indoor season.


Friday, October 30th--took the day off completely. These leisure days have been good to me, I suppose.