Day 655 -- Race Report

Today was the third annual "Get the Lead Out" run in my little town. I had run the first two (although the second gets an asterisk), and plan to run every year as long as the run is held. The sporting goods company that is their major sponsor is going out of business this summer, this could be it.

I wasn't sure what to expect. I haven't been training at all to run a fast 5 mile race. My pace runs have been 9:45 to 10:00 miles, which would be damn slow. I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to go anywhere near my first "Get the Lead Out" run, which was 39:03. So I decided to just go out and run a comfortable race, which I did.

The race is two 4 kilometer loops. I ran the first one with my friend Diane, who was aiming for 46 or 47 minutes overall. That was good, because it kept me from going out too fast. I ran ahead on the second loop. The first loop was about 22 minutes, and overall, I ran 43:46, so it was a pretty steady pace.

The funny thing is that I placed fifth in my age group. This is my first every age group award. Two years ago, I was almost five minutes faster (and in the same age group, 40 - 49), but didn't place. Of course, it's all a matter of who shows up. I didn't ask, and don't want to know, how many 40-49 year old men there were in the race. At least five, that's all I know.

I was really surprised when they called my name. I had just finished telling Diane about a race I was in (I forget which one) where the last place finisher won her age group. She was the only woman over 65 to enter the race. I said that if I ever got an age group award, that's how I would do it. By being older than everyone else. I guess I was wrong.

Anyway, I plan to go ahead with my long run tomorrow. It's a step-back week, so my long run drops to 10 miles, which I think I can do, even with the humidity. We'll see.