Lucky 13?

First things first.... I forgot to mention something from the Muck Run Race Report. Before the race I was properly hydrated, so I had to pee by the time we got there. The por-a-let's were literally outhouses. Wooden structures with a door over a hole in the ground. not a typical blue plastic thing that can properly dispose of waste. It's been a long time since I've had to pee in a hole in the ground. Some would say.... too long.

Saturday morning was the Run Walk & Roll 5k in Cary. I ran it in 23:26 and finished in 13th place overall out of 130 runners! This is a nice PR, and certainly my highest placement. There was no age group breakdown, but at 13th overall, I think it's very unlikely that I wasn't top 3 in my age group. Kelley ran this one too, she finished in 30:32 and was quite satisfied with her 54th place overall. There wasn't even a M/F breakdown, so 13th and 54th place overall is pretty dang good.

The course was in a local city park at an Amphitheater. It was next to a beautiful lake. The start line was at the top of a hill, so we started out by running slightly downhill. I was kind of near the front, but still had a handful of people to pass on the way down. When the dust settled I counted 7 people in front of me. I looked down and saw something never before seen on the Garmin: I was keeping a 5:38 pace. I cleared the first half mile in 2:42. This is insane.

Then a long steep uphill kicked in. My target for the race was to never look down and see a pace slower than a 7 minute mile. Keep it in the 6's. I did one in practice and put up a 20:50 time. but with this big-ass hill I saw an 8:xx pace on there. goal blown. But if I had tried to hold 6:xx up that hill there's no way I would have had anything left in the end. So I could live with it.

The course started with a spur, so the road came through an out and back up the big hill and then back down the big hill. I high-fived Kelley on my way down. That hill was a bitch both ways. Then it turned onto a greenway paved trail and went around the lake. There was a water station at the 1 mile marker and again at the 2 mile marker, both on the greenway.

And, of course, by the time we started corning the lake I was totally out of gas. Got into that last mile still pushing hard. It was a nice flat trail around the lake. But towards the end my abs were shot and I was dying for that finish line. Then they kept moving it. Ran past the ampitheater. No finish line there. Turned around to the other side of it. Hit a really short really steep uphill off of the greenway (thought it was there). Turned back onto the road for a bit - no finish line there either. Then a volunteer pointed off the road and said there was only one more hill! there was not another hill, but I cruised around a turn slowly expecting to charge up something. instead there was actually the finish line. dumbass. Still I was glad to see the line, and 23:26 is still over a 1 minute PR. I'll take it.

We ended up taking some pictures in the parking lot after the race. For some reason, it turned me into a goofy show-off. The humidity and the heat are out in full force here now, so Kelley swears that was her last race until the fall (I've still got a few coming up over the summer). I ran in a shirt, but that was a mistake. By the time I was done it was dripping. You could ring enough sweat out of that shirt to bathe a small child.




Then we picked up the kids and went for a picnic in the Rose Garden. Bigun wanted to try riding her bike again. She's almost got it, able to stay up for about 10 seconds now on her own. It's really cool. The kids love to play on the amphitheater stage in the Rose Garden. We all had some fun....






Overall it was an absolutely fantastic weekend! This week is a solid week of training, and I've got a local sprint triathlon this saturday. Fun times ahead.