60F, 80% humidity, wind N 3 mph. Beautiful Saturday morning, was thinking about all the St. George runners, hope all goes well with all of them. Byron and Marci, my brother in law and sister in law from Woodland Hills, ran it. They just called and said the heat was brutal.
I ran a local 5K this morning, a breast cancer fundraiser for which my firm is one of the sponsors. There were 32,000 runners in all, a real zoo in downtown Houston. Only 3,000+ were entered in the timed race, however, most wanted to just slog it or walk it. I had 3 of my 5 kids entered, as well as my son-in-law and daughter-in-law, so it was a family event. My wife stayed home with the granddaughters so they didn't have to get up.
I got down there a little early and got the last ones in our group registered. I wanted to run about 6 ahead of the race but there wasn't time. I ran 3 at about 9:30 pace to warm up, then entered the race corral from the front end, as I knew with that many runners a good time was hopeless unless I managed to get close to the front. I placed myself a few rows back and that was about right.
After the gun went off I was bobbing and weaving a little but saw I was running a 6:45 pace, which explained why my legs felt heavy but at least I knew I was OK with the speed. Mile splits were 7:07, 7:07, 7:17 and 1:02 (7:15). The last mile was fairly significant uphill, including a steep down and up underpass, so compensating for that I ran an even pace throughout. I ran at 187-188 bpm the entire last mile, felt like I gave it pretty much everything I had and finished in 22:33, close to a 2-minute improvement over my time on this same course (different race) in March. I looked around and didn't see any other geezers so I thought I might have a chance of placing. We stuck around for the awards ceremony, something I never do, and sure enough I won the 55+ division, which had 95 runners entered. Overall I was 243 out of 3182 finishers in the timed race. Got a nice crystal plaque that is going front and center in my office.
Last week of taper coming up. This is the week I have the most trouble getting it right. I am suspicious of tapers in general, but I must admit my legs are feeling stronger today. This 5K time translates to about a 3:40 marathon, eerily close to what my time trial half marathon from 15 days ago graded out to as well. I think there is a message here: Don't try anything dumb in Hartford.
Here is the obligatory post-race shot, sorry about the shaded eyes.
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