Darin and his son, Zachary were planning to run this race, and seeing that the weather was supposed to be unseasonably cool (for Texas), I somehow I talked myself into driving the 40 miles to run it with them. Dave, who has been cutting back on his running was there, too. Darin and I believed it was our day to beat Dave (who has beat us in most other races we've been in this year). A week ago Darin schooled me at a 10K, by about a minute. I was hoping for redemption. It was about 50 degrees when the gun went off at 7:30. Abouta 15MPH NW breeze. I took off at a comfortably painful pace, one that I was hoping I could maintain for 3.1 miles. Darin and Dave were somewhere behind me. The race had the most turns of any 5K I've ever run, meandering through a mall at the start, then out on the perimeter of the mall, then some meandering to the finish. Check out the Garmin. It wasn't too bad, but I thought it was going to be a slow day because of all the corners...and there was some wind (I don't like wind). Maybe 15 MPH - it's my friend when it's behind me, but when I feel it against me, I mentally start checking out. I was doing OK. I managed to pass the first place female and about 1 mile into the race, and stayed ahead of her by just a little bit. I kept hearing her fans telling her that she was the first female (I'm pretty sure she was a highschooler). At about the 2.5 mile mark, we turned into the wind and up a slight incline. That's when Darin passed me. Dangit! I was running out of gas, and he turned on the after burner. I just let him go and hung on 'til the finish. I crossed the line at 19:54 (I forgot to stop my watch..so ignore the Garmin time) Darin finished about 20 seconds ahead of me (yes, I choked badly, losing 20 seconds to my training buddy, my peer, my equal, in the last .6 miles of the race). I'm a little bummed that I couldn't finish stronger, but I'm happy that Darin placed 1st in our AG, and I was second. It turns out Dave was only about 20 seconds behind me...and I ended up beating the 2 top women finishers by 2 seconds! (They must have been gaining fast...they had identical time 19:56) We hung around for the awards, and this race, even with a couple hundred entrants gave out certificates and goody bags to the 1st place finishers in each AG. It was a little disappointing to go home empty handed after another podium finish, but that's OK. It was a nice morning for a race and I went sub 20:00 for the first time in about a year! I'll take it I just read a report HERE. I didn't realize that men and women were competing for the same awards. That stinks even more...especially for the women. I'm sure they'll straighten it out next year. I believe people who organize races should be veterans of a few races, or at least consult a few veterans to find out what works at most races, and what people expect for their entry fee. The awards aren't a very big deal, but race directors need to be clear in their advertising, and by all means, separate the men from the women.
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