Race Day

I’m back from a successful morning in Durham. After an ‘unexpected’ start; (the gun went off about 3 minutes early.) I quickly got out into the traffic and began looking for some clear space to maneuver. And after about 2 minutes the road cleared up and I could see my first competitor ahead of me, an older gentleman racewalking at a good pace. But not as good as mine. In fact I checked the pace and I was at 5.3 mph, a bit too fast. And after passing him, I decided to slow it down to right around 5 mph. (12 minute miles) As I approached the 1 mile marker, a woman passed me and asked if I knew what the split time was for the mile? I did; it was 12.1. She then accelerated away.

That was when I decided that she was going to be my ‘rabbit’ and I took off after her. Pretty soon I was about 10 feet behind her and she knew it. We kept that distance for the next mile and sure enough, another 12.1 split time for us at 2 miles. I tried to make a run on her a couple of times, but when she saw my shadow or heard my steps, she was off. I think we finally settled into about a 20 foot spread for the rest of the race, though I did try once more, at the very end, to close the gap, but without success.

I went across at 37.20 for the 5K. That’s an average of 12 minute miles for 3.1 miles. And if I were to get technical…I did have about 3 seconds from the time the gun went off until I crossed the starting line. Let’s call it 37.17 and that would make it 11.990322 minute miles. Woo Hoo!

Short story…once again I won male overall and first in my age group. (60-70) Last year I did it in 37.49. So I’m really happy about today. And I talked to the woman that beat me; thanking her very much for the great competition. I couldn’t have done it without her. We high-fived each other and made a date to do it again next year.