Sweethearts 4 miler

This race was largely uneventful.

Bob picked me up as KC was already there working. We warmed up. It was pretty cold; below 30 for sure, but no wind. Jack, Justin, Bob and I warmed up about 2.5 miles. I didn't stretch as much as I would have liked to before hand, but I was warm and fairly loose on the line. I didn't see anyone that looked like they could beat me... nor did anyone have on a skull cap and basketball shorts. I did hear some guys talking on the line about how they were going to go out super-fast at 5:30 pace.

So the gun went off and I won in the first 5 feet. I could hear Ted Poulos's loud feet smacking the pavement all the way through the first time into the pavement trail. I wonder if he was wearing spikes or something. The woods were sort of icy because it was all in the shade. The parking lot by the driving range was icy too, so I tried to be pretty careful. I'd originally planned to go out in 5:30 until I saw the trail and reconsidered. But here I was, going through mile 1 in 5:27 AND my left hamstring felt tight. Stupid. So I tried to relax for mile 2. No one was within earshot, but I wasn't looking back at all. Mile 2 is mostly downhill, and it showed as I ran 5:22 trying to slow down.

I turned around the cone and had a huge lead. I didn't even worry about it because I didn't feel that tired. But despite having the cheering section all the way from the turnaround back into the park, I only managed a 5:34 3rd mile. The trail really takes it out of you. I went back into it with a big lead, still not looking back. Some cars got in my way, and I slowed down going towards the parking lot because of the ice. In the woods, I noticed that MY feet were loud too. I hadn't noticed myself losing so much control.

I arbitrarily looked at my watch coming out of the trail, not knowing the exact distance, but saw that I had like 45 seconds or something like that if I wanted to get under 22:00. So I started sprinting uphill. I rounded the last turn and saw the clock and just went after it with all that I had (not much). KC said I looked relatively good finishing (no arms flapping around) but it wasn't enough. I stopped the clock right on 22:00, despite a goal of 21:59 or better. I didn't stop my watch until I was through the chute, if that's any indication of how much I was working to get to that line. But that didn't stop me from dropping the F-bomb quietly (I hope) at the line... 5:35 for the last mile.

2nd place was 75 seconds back. I don't know him.

Luckily for me though, the RTU website had the 2010 form online with a 10am start time. So Jared Campbell arrive late. He likely would have been ahead of me. I don't know that I've ever beaten him. He was on the team, after all. We cooled down together with Jack and then some. I wanted 10 for the day but settled for less after a long cool down that almost went into the awards ceremony.

I won $60 from Le Petite Auberge. So that's where I'll go on Valentine's Day.