Yesterday I was feeling pretty good and thought it might be a good time to push for a PR. Then I played basketball. All that jumping around tightened up my lower back. Plus my finger got jammed and is all bruised and swollen still. Around 5am this morning I had one of those killer calf cramps/charlie horses that almost had me crying like a baby. So I was kind of limping around today. Then at 2pm I was driving down the freeway and saw the Gateway Hospital sign flash that it was 107. Holy smokes! How in the world am I going to PR now?
When I walked out the door to the race my thermometer showed 100. So maybe it was 99 by the time the race started at 6pm. My teammate Shannon from Ragnar last year showed up. It was great to see her. She's still doing all sorts of triathlons.
I was the first one to get there and sign in. I filled out my raffle slip and thought, "There's no way I'm going to win anything if my slip is all the way at the bottom." There were probably 30 people that showed up and they raffled off four prizes. My chances weren't that good, but I won a $40 dollar running shirt! Shannon helped me pick it out.
The 'race' was the same course as last time. We run on the sidewalk down McClintock, turn right on 8th, turn right again on Rural, turn right on Playa del Norte for a short bit, then turn around. It seemed like everyone lined up in a single file behind me when we started. I took off a little too fast. Everytime I looked at my Garmin it was showing me being in the low 6's. It felt okay, but I didn't think I could sustain it. I was in the lead by virtue of my strategic start position for the first half mile. Then this dude passed right by me and told me I was doing great. He didn't look like he was running fast, but he zipped right by.
I finished the first mile in 6:47. I have to believe it's a slight downhill because we run in the direction that the Salt River flows. When I reached Rural I looked behind me and saw another guy hot on my tail. He ran right behind me until the turn around. Then he dropped me like I was hot. It seemed like a had a pretty good handle on third place, but I hoped I could hang on to the guy that passed me and maybe he'd slow down. He didn't. He finished about 40 seconds ahead of me. My second mile was 7:18 and third was 7:16. That's encouraging having the third mile be faster thant the second because it means I didn't totally kill myself starting out too fast. The last 0.1 was 41 seconds (6:54 pace.)
After I caught my breath I walked back until I reached Shannon. Then we ran in together. She was a little disappointed because she had to walk a tiny bit. But that's because it was so hot. She came in third for females. Go Shannon!
So I guess that makes it a PR. I'm going to count it because I think I can beat it pretty soon once I start running more miles again. Somebody was giving away free acai berry juices at the finish line. Mine was partially frozen, so it tasted like a yummy slushy. Then I talked to the store owner to see if she thinks I could do a P90X presentation some time at her store. She was all for it. I love these races!
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Congratulations to Leandra for having her baby!
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Day 74 P90X - Yoga X - Nearing the end. When I started my workout, still sore from the race, I didn't think I would be feeling this good afterwards. Acai juice? 
Here's a picture of my bruised index finger. Pretty? Also notice the scab on my pinky knuckle from finishing concrete. 
Here's my $40 Tempe Road Runner shirt and my Blue Steel pose. 
And here's the view from behind with my stretch pants that look espenseeb.
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