Heroes Run for Hope

I ran the Heroes Run for Hope 5 mile in beautiful Chatham this morning. I LOVE having a race in the town where I live and I was heartbroken when the Race for Brazil/Race to Cure Lymphoma dissolved two years ago.

I love racing in Chatham because I know the streets, I know the hills and I like to do well on my "home" course. This morning dawned sunny and cool with temps in the mid-50s by race time. As I stood on the line I did not see any of the big horses from the SRRC and was wondering if the race was going to turn into a lonely slog in the lead. I didn't have anything to worry about though because when "go" was yelled a guy next to me on the line shot to the front. I let him go and focused on finding my rhythm as the race headed north on Rt. 4. As we passed Walgreens heading to the one mile mark another runner passed me. I didn't feel like chasing and hit the mile in 6:33.34 which was a bit faster than I wanted to go. I didn't feel over-extended and I tried to stride out on the downhill heading toward the railroad trestle. As I crested the hill heading toward the high school I felt like I had quite a bit of life in the legs and attempted to run the tangents as Plummer Rd. wound its way to Gordon Dr. I hit mile two in 13:26.21 with a mile split of 6:52.87.

After rounding the turn onto Gordon I knew that it was a long, straight shot to the three mile mark. Luckily for me the course basically mirrored the first three miles of my six my training loop that I have completed numerous tempo runs on. I settled into a rhythm and hit mile three in 20:05.58 with a mile split of 6:39.37. I ran up the next to last decent hill on the course and wound through the Breckenridge sub-division heading toward the four mile mark. As I rounded the corner with the four mile mark in sight I heard the scuff of shoes right behind me. I snuck a peek over my shoulder as I turned and saw a guy not quite ten seconds back and gaining. I noticed him at the two mile mark when he was about 30 seconds back. It seemed apparent that he was gunning for the bronze medal.

I surged hard at four which I hit in 26:48.70 with a 6:43.12 mile split. I cut a tangent heading to Park St. and swooshed around the corner into the last 3/4 of a mile and the last two hills on the course. I easily crested the first of the bunny hops and surged on the downhill side. As I approached the last hill a block later I lowered the arms and shortened the stride and gave it all I had. As I turned into South Park I dug deeper and sprinted as hard as I could to the finish. I could hear myself whimpering with effort and crossed the line in 33:00.62, having covered the last mile in 6:12.92. I managed to hold off my shadow by 11 seconds and just barely avoided vomiting on his shoes as he came over to congratulate me.

My shadow started running seriously this past spring after spending years on an elliptical machine. He is in his forties and knocked down five miles in 33:11 today. Personally, I am glad he didn't start running seriously a month or two earlier than he did or I would have had to settle for first in my age group instead of third overall.

The race was won by the guy who passed me at the mile mark. He caught the early leader with about a half mile to go and triumphed in 31:45 (I think) to 31:59. I remember when I could run that fast. . . on hilly, solo tempo run days even. Those days were nice. Those days were also about 13-14 years ago. Hopefully those days will come around again.

My legs felt pretty good after having felt dead every time I ran for the last month or so. I started doing the Core Secrets workout with Gunnar Peterson again the last two weeks and I think that is helping me out immensely. I think I'll have to keep that up.

I am getting ready to start two ten week long grad classes on Monday after finishing my first one a few weeks ago. I expect the blogging to go on hiatus for awhile, though I will post updates about our pregnancy toward the end of the month or beginning of next as we'll be discovering the sex of our child then. I'll also try to get a race report up if I decide to run the Jingle Bell Run 5K in the middle of November.

Take care and have a nice autumn!!!