Time - 23:09 (avg. pace 7:29)
Splits - 7:25, 7:39, 7:27, 0:39 0.10 for (6:43 pace)
Temp - 101 (6:30pm)
This is was a fun little race sponsored by the Tempe Road Runners Sports Store. It's not chipped and no awards are given out. They just do it once a month to promote fitness and get people in their store. I think about 30 people showed up. There were a lot of people from the East Valley Runners. One of them invited me to come running with them Saturday. I may just do it.
At 4:30pm I threw X Stretch in the DVD player because my legs had been sore all day. I fast forwarded to the leg and back stretches. It felt pretty good. Then I drove to Tempe. I got out of the truck and did some more stretching while I waited for Garmin to sync. Then I saw this lady get in to her van. I saw that her shirt said something...Barcelona España. So I kept staring at her until I could see the rest. La mision de Barcelona España. That's where I served! So I went up to her and made her roll down her window. Turns out she was there a couple years after me. She met her husband there. He was probably a year after me. It was cool talking to her, but she didn't serve in any of the cities I did.
We had to cross McClintock Road to get to the starting line. Four of us braved to cross when the light turned green. Everyone else crossed on the next green light. I didn't know they were going to start the race right there and now I was in the back. Oh well. With as hot as it was, I wanted to take it easy and not push it too much. [Pause in race report to tell you what my 5 year old just shared with me: "Dad, have you looked into mom's eyes? It's the only way to know if she's the one. If you see just beautiful, you know she's the one."]
The "race" started and I waited for an opening. After about 20 seconds it thinned out enough for me to go around and run in the landscape area and pass some people. Then I jumped back on the sidewalk. There were three guys and one girl in front of me. The third place guy was wearing a tan cotton shirt and swim trunks. I wondered how he would do. Turns out he did pretty good, staying in 3rd place the whole way. Another guy in a yellow shirt was running right next to me. We weren't making up any ground on the girl. At 1.2 miles we turned from Rio Salado north on Rural Road. If you're familiar with Tempe, you know that the ASU campus is right there. The yellow shirt EVR had passed me up. Then we ran over a bridge. This is where I caught up to the girl. We ran shoulder to shoulder up to the turn around point. Then I started to open my pace up a little. She stayed right behind me along with another guy. After we crossed the bridge again and were about to turn on to Rio Salado I hear a thud behind me. The girl took a little tumble. The other guy totally stopped and I was about to. We both asked her in unison if she was all right. She was good, so I kept going. We joked about it afterwards.
I kept trying to push the pace, but not getting out of my comfort zone. Yellow shirt was about 40 yards ahead of me, and I knew I could catch him if I kicked it in. However, it was hot and what would be the point? It's just a fun race. So I was content to cruise in with my 5th place finish. The girl passed the other guy and finished about a minute behind me. Then I went back to the store and grabbed a water bottle. I headed back to the street to wait for everyone. I toweled down and decided to change into the dry shirt I brought. As I was changing everyone crossed the road. I tried to hurry, but the cotton T wasn't cooperating with my damp pits and stuff. So I let everyone walk by me and it was a wave of stinky body odor. P-U! LOL! I should have let everyone know how bad they stunk. Then I hung around for the drawing. They gave away 5 hats and a free pair of shoes. I didn't win :( But it was fun, and I'll be back next month.
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Day 46 P90X - Yoga X - This is a great workout after a race. I'm still struggling with balance postures, but I'm doing a lot better with crane. Oh, which also is a balance posture, but not a one-legged, don't fall down, balance posture.
My son wants to join cross country. We sent him on a run around the block. It's just over a half mile. I had him take the Garmin so I would know that he wasn't slacking. He ran it at a 6:26 pace. Pretty soon he'll be faster than me. | 