When the gun went off, I tried to stay under control. I think i did a pretty good job. For about the first 1/2 mile I was in second pace. Someone yelled keep it up Jim, you're in second. It was a pretty small race. The pace on my watch was reading something like 7:10. I knew right away that was bogus. I tried not to let it bother me but I was pissed. I spent 150 bucks for this damn watch and had it "dialed" in the week before. The previous weekend I had ran 10 miles and it read 10.03. Gee, you would think that being .3% accurate was good enough. but nooo.

I totally forgot to hit my lap button for most of the race. Going in to the race I was going to snap a lap on every mile marker(or at least every mark that was there on course). I didn't remember that I was going to do that until like mile 8 or 9. I still didn't remember to do it until mile 11.

We pasted the first mile and I saw that my watch was at 1.08miles. I spent the next 3 or 4 miles trying to figure out the percent I was off and converting that percent to my watch pace for an accurate pace. That was one reason that I forgot to hit my lap button at each mile. Every mile marker we passed I was calculating my pace rather than hitting my damn lap button. I think the 1st mile was right at 8 and the second my was at 16 mins. Another marker I remember was at 5 at 39.xx. Every mile we hit was just under 8. Going in, my goal was 1:48(at 8:15 pace) and I was thinking after each sub 8 mile, cool, 15 secs in the bank, 30 secs in the bank. at mile 8 I had over 2mins in the bank.

Tim and his buddy Ryan ran with me pretty much the whole race. They chatted like two old ladies walking laps at the mall. I really did enjoy the company and the support. I was able to gasp out a few comments every now and then. I was at redline for the whole race - they just out for a nice sunday run. Damn those guys are in good shape and fast.

We got to 10 miles and Ryan left us. my plan had been to "empty" the tank with 5K left. Well, the tank was pretty much empty already. I don't know what I did for mile 10-11 but it felt like the slowest mile. I was hurting pretty bad. And instead of thinking I "only" had a 5k to do, I was thinking, DAMN i've got over 3 miles to do - thats going to be like 24-25 more mins of running! I knew I was well ahead of my goal and started thinking of putting this thing of cruize control and just hitting my goal.

At the mile 11 mark, i finally hit my lap button. Two more miles to go.
We were at 1:26:40, a 7:52 pace and I realized that I was over 4 mins quicker than my goal. More thoughts of just cruizing it in. Again, i was thankful timmy was there and again I was thinking I was slowing to a 9 min pace. I watched the lap time a lot on this mile. I was hurting pretty good. I couldn't believe that mile was done in 7:54 as it was pretty painful. I was having a heck of a conversation with myself. Slow it down, no think about our super secret goal of sub 8. I knew I wasn't going to be able to hit that If I coasted in. I was way encouraged that mile 11-12 was still sub 8:00. Funny, it felt a lot slower. I was way happy and excited and tired.

The last 1.1 was done at a 7:40 pace. Not much of a kick, but didn't fade much at all. For the last 1.1 miles i was looking at my watch every min or so. 8 more mins, 7 more mins, 6 more mins, etc, etc. I think I did this until I was like 2 mins or so out. Tim kept up a constant chant of "you can do it", "your training will take ya", "don't leave it on the course", etc, etc. for the last mile. It mostly helped, no it helped a lot.

I "sprinted" down to the finish...thanks NCN for putting a 180 degree turn 20 or so yards from the line. That hurt and I couldn't really get back up to pace. I had no idea of the total time, I was just trying to gut it out. I dont think I left anything on the course. Well, thinking back, maybe, doesn't everyone always think they could of put out just a little more effort in hindsite??

The ladies at the finish line took my bib number and told me to wait so I knew I had a podium spot. BTW, they stood way to close to the finish line. A 205# clyde can't stop on a dime with a pretty good head of steam going. Anyways, they gave me the 1st place medal for my division. Cool, can't wait to see how my other peers had done. TW took a 2nd in his AG. Not bad for a training run for him. He has bigger things on the horizon.

not much, my training plan was pretty good. I did blow up my achillies a few weeks from the race. Hard to tell what I could have done to prevent that. Oh and of course leave my watch alone.

walked around a little. made a pig of myself at the food table. BSed with the bro-in-laws. They all had a good time I believe running the 10k. It was nice of them to hang out waiting for us to finish. Marty, tim, and chris came over to our house for a little bit after as well. I was hurting pretty bad. My achillies was gimpy as hell and my quads were tighting up. Funny, I didn't notice my achillies the entire race.


just putting in the miles. at the point i'm at, I don't think I could have ran faster or trained more over the last 3/4 months. In Nov I ran a 5K @ an 7:56 pace. Today I ran a 13.1 at a 7:52 pace. Not bad.


Nice small race. just might make it an annual event.