This was a last-minute entry but one that I thought would be pretty fun. It also was the first time I'd seen a stroller run division for men and women, which I thought would be great since it seemed like the wife was the only female who ever ran with a stroller in these local races.
Or so it seemed. The race started -- as with local races, there's always some kind of quirk, and this one was that when the gun abruptly sounded, I wasn't even sure where the starting line was! So I set my watch and then started running with everyone.
There was one lady with a triple stroller who was just really booking it. It seemed hard to believe she could even continue her pace.
Somewhere before the first mile with that stroller lady leaving us in the dust, the first big hill came and I decided I would just run at my own pace instead of with the wife and stroller. As we crossed back over I-20, I didn't even think I would be able to catch the triple stroller lady!
But as it turned out, she stopped for water at 1.5 miles and then had to stop after that because one of her children was crying. I continued on.
I felt like I was running good and my effort really only was about 70 percent. Near the end of Boulevard on the course I fell in behind some dude with a San Francisco Giants T-shirt jersey. The pace was good but I passed him as the course turned down a pretty decent hill.
I settled in behind another guy but when the road went uphill, I quickly passed him. Then I passed another guy, who right near the end of the race started to outkick me. Here I thought, "OK, I've been outkicked before at the end of races."
But as I followed him, soon I had a pretty good burst (turned out it was 5:44/mile pace!) and passed him and two other people as I ran into the finish line.
The gun clock said 24:18, which is good enough for Time Group B of the Peachtree 10K next year. My watch time said 23:53, which is a pretty good showing from the race I ran in last month.
When I got home I looked at my splits and despite having a slow 8:30/min mile, my last two miles were at a 7:26/mile pace, which is more than decent to qualify for Group A of the Peachtree (you need a 7:37/mile pace in a 5K for that).
So things are looking good. Since the last race I've basically been running at least 3 miles a day, so I guess the extra effort paid off.
Time: 8 a.m.
Temp: 72 degrees, overcast
Gear: Short sleeve T, technical (Doug Kessler), shorts, Nike Air Pegasus+ 29/A.
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