Tuesday, November 29, 2011

38:36

I ran an 8K (4.97 miles) Saturday, that was nice considering that two turkey trots near my sister's house on Thanksgiving filled up before I could sign up. Came across this one quite by accident -- I'd gone to the park to run and saw them setting up mile markers, then happened to encounter representatives doing packet pickup at a local store afterward, where I signed up.

It was a nice cool but not cold morning to run, and the course wound its way through the woods around a lake. I started near the front and got off to a fast start thanks to my 11 year old niece, but kept up the pace even after exhausting myself only a little ways in. I lost my sense of time and distance easily and completely. I didn't see a 2-mile marker and so when I approached the next I could have sworn it would be 4 miles but no, just 3. They said there would be water at Mile 4 and so I drank it and went into my final mile mental state, only to encounter the actual mile 4 marker a quarter mile ahead. Devastating! The last mile was nearly all uphill, and struggling there I lost a spot to a guy I'd worked very hard to pass, then found the last bit and passed him by, energized to see a clock at 38:something. That's not bad for me from what I usually pace (and it turns out my only other race at this distance, a 41: something on Thanksgiving in 2008. 38:36 it was. Good run.

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