Oh what fun it is to run an inaccurately marked course. . . ohhhhhhh.
I ran the Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis this morning. It was a nice day for a run with temps in the low 50s, negligible wind and about 50% humidity. I had hoped to go under 19:00 today but I forgot how many rolling little hummocks there were on this course. None of the hummocks deserved to be called a hill but they were rolling and numerous enough to prevent me from getting into any type of rhythm.
I started off pretty conservatively and hit the mile in 6:53. I must say that it was the most strenuous 6:53 mile I have ever run. I hit the turnaround in 9:57 and went through two in 12:28. If you do the math I ran mile two in 5:35. Way to go for me! Hooray me! I think the mile mark was actually the 1.1 or the 1.15 mile mark. I covered the last 1.1 in 6:57 and finished up in 19:26.
I ran a pretty strong race. The last mile I had my stopwatch set to alarm every thirty seconds to remind me to surge. The alarm dings for ten seconds and I made myself surge until the alarm stopped. I was able to surge for 28 strides each time and was able to hold off a few 50 year old men and almost run down another. The results will look like this from 13th through 16th place: Male, 52; Male 29; Male 51, Male 50. I'm glad I'm not 50. I'd have a hard time placing in my age group. I actually placed second in my age group for the second year in a row. I was hoping to complete my collection of age group medals this year as I had placed third here two years ago. I guess I have to wait until next year when I'm thirty. Hopefully I'll get it done before I'm 50.
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I'd like to say that November 17 is too early for a "Jingle Bell Run", but we've got a radio station that's been playing Christmas music for two weeks. When I'm in charge, no Christmas-themed races until we're through Turkey Trot season.
A few places, like Decatur have already had their Jingle Bell Runs. Ours is always a week or two after the State CC meet and we get a ton of high school kids that come out and run it. I beat a few of them too. Ha ha!
Also, we don't have a Turkey Trot here in Springfield. I think Decatur does but I don't want to drive there when we have a perfectly decent Jingle Bell Run here in Springfield. I may have to run Peoria's Turkey Trot sometime though. It is in Detweiller Park and you run up a big ole hill in the first mile or so that you get to run back down the last mile! It probably hurts and would kill my back. Maybe I'll skip it.
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