I had intended to speed up as I was running today, however, I think the tempo workout I did Thursday night killed my legs. That and the general lack of sleep from the night before.

I had started in the back of the pack, which for this race was not that smart. I had to work to get through a LOT of people, should have started more up front. I didn't try to go out hard, I wanted to negative split the race.

Heading out I was running fairly easy, or so I thought, I still went out a little too fast. I lost time over each mile, just not as much as last race. I passed Trigirl10, Speedyboy9, and my youngest son (Splash) all in the first 1/4 mile or less. I thought Speedyboy and Splash were running together, but they seperated fairly early on.

I was running and trying to hold my pace, but I was feeling pretty tired. Breathing was not coming easy, and I could tell I was struggling. Hit the first mile and saw I was at 8:07, thought great I will have something left. Was working the 2nd mile, passed a few people but not a lot at this point. Hit the drink station got a glass of water, gupled 2/3rds of it, dumped the rest. Hit the turn around and saw there was a whole crowd no that far behind me.

Passed the drink station and grabbed a water, drank some but not a lot.

Started feeling like I was having major troubles about this point, just feeling sluggish and slow. Got passed by 3-4-5 people, stayed close with 2 and repassed them. About the 1.75 mile mark saw Trigirl10, said "great job" to her and encouraged her on. She was running with someone about her own age, I am not sure how long she stayed with her.

Between mile 2-3 I got passed by 5-9 more people, and was starting to feel the stomic complain about the effort. I think I had too much water at the water areas. Hit the 3 mile mark and started to kick it in, but then just died off. I could not push any harder at that point, I figure it cost me 3-4 places because I was just done. Had enough at the end to hold off one person, but I should have been furthure up. They handed me the 112 card, so I think that was my overall place. I got to the end of the gate, walked over to the side and threw up the little water in my stomic. So I guess I pushed hard enough.

They gave me the 4th place finishers award for my AG, I don't think I actually EARNED it. I think someone made an error in the tabulations. Once I see the results posted, THEN I might buy that I earned it. I just doubt that 26:19 was fast enough to get even 4th place. Well after getting the results, I was right about not earning the medal. I didn't figure I had. I'll see if I can't get it to the right person, since I don't feel right keeping it.

I was pretty happy with the performance in many ways. I would have
1. gotten more sleep.
2. Not pushed so hard Thursday night. (Make sure the speed zones were set correctly.)
3. Started more up front in the pack.

I kept jogging out the meet family members in the race, ran in with each of them. Walked around got some water, then headed back to the awards area.


No Sleep, not enough recovery time.


The awards area didn't have much food left by the time I got there, a few apples and cookies. It didn't help that Splash finished in 53:XX minutes. He walked most of it, and I can't complain he is only 6 and has not trained at all. He walked with a lady that had 2 dogs, and she did a great job helping him.