Saturday July 16 was a was the Run for Your Life 4 Miler which has some historical significance for me. It was at the race two years ago that I had an eye opening. I had been running race basically just to run and had begun to identify faces in the crowd I wanted to try to beat. Theoden Janes was one because he is a local running celebrity due to his blogging/writing/facebooking. It was at the race two years where on mile 3 I was passed by Theoden and some guy with star tatoos on his calves. Turns out the starred calves belong to my buddy Steve Saal who was running his first race and totally smoking me. This is when I realized if I wanted to be competitve I needed to train. So I have used this race as a symbolic turning point, and Saturday was no different. The goal here was to see how far I had come since last year. Also, this would be my last race as 31 year old so I needed to prove my youth.
After sweltering heat earlier in the week, Saturday providing some suprising cool (for summer in the South) temperatures. It was in the 60s with some humidity but not too bad. The race was near our house so I ran to the starting line and used that as part of my warmup. Once I got the RFYL store, I grabbed my chip and threw on my Ronins and completed my warm up. As I made my way to the starting line, I lined up close to the front. I heard some guys chit chatting and one guy asked another nearby what kind of time he was shooting for. The guy responsed some around 20:30. I thought holy crap this guy is going to win (and he did).
Once the race started, I tried to execute my race plan. The plan this time was to be more agressive than usual at the beginning of the race. The first 3/4 of mile is all uphill and I was trying to stay close the 2nd pack of runners. I was feeling pretty good as we topped the first hill. I could see head the guy shooting for 20:30 already had a sizable lead over everyone. I was pleased with my first mile of 5:47 and feeling pretty decent. As we moved into the 2nd mile the pack was picking up the pace and I was doing my best to hang on but they were pulling away. The 2nd mile started with a little hill but then was predominantly flat and turned in a 5:42 time on it. However, I was starting to feel the effects of the agressive start combined with the hills. As I entered the 3rd mile, the wheels came off and I slowed dramatically. I was passed by two runners during this mile and desperately just wanted to end the race. I struggled through this mile and ran a 6:13! Very disappointing. There was one last big hill in the 4th mile and as I approached I dug deep to give everthing I had left. I was able to recover and turn in a 5:50 mile 4. My official finishing time was 23:50.
Overall, I was pleased. I had hoped to finish in the 23:30 - 23:59 range. The 4 mile distance is a pretty unfamiliar and challenging race, but I enjoyed it. Also the after party included beer and I am always a fan of that. Additionally, this race gave a portion of its proceeds to various charities which was cool and all of those organizations had volunteers out to help with the race. My personal favorites were the war veterans from the American Legion who were spread out all over the course. Most wearing cut off blue jean or black leather jackets and on motorcycles. Not your typical road race crowd, but very cool to see them out there.
I finished 2nd in my age group, 20th overall and scored RFYL 4 Miler visor. I am still trying to figure out if I am visor guy. The jury is still out. Picture to follow soon.
As mentioned, I consider this a litmus test to gauge my progress since I have returned to running so here are my previous results. I am happy with where I am now, but excited to see how much faster I can get.
2009 - 29:29
2010 - 27:09
2011 - 23:50
I think the more time that past the different perspective you had because I recall you weren't happy with you time. You should be proud of yourself! You have improved significantly over the years!!
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