The morning was beautiful and my friends and I left for the race around 7:15 that morning. I wanted to leave early, the race started at 8:00, since I knew parking may be an issue. We quickly found a parking spot and then walked over to the starting line where we signed ourselves in. We did a bit of wandering around and warming up and before we knew it we were being instructed to line up for the start.

The biggest problem I seem to have with racing is that I never start in the correct place. I always feel like I get stuck behind someone who is going at a slower pace then I am and then I have to pass them. I’m now convinced that this is slowing me down a bit. Once I had cleared the people in front of me though I was cruising right along. I had ran the course a few times the week before so I knew what my pace would be and would know how to conquer the causeway.

I ended up crossing the finish line with a time of 23:09 which equates to and average pace of 7:28 a mile. Not a bad time at all considering I came in 9th in my age group and 157th overall. Here is a link to all the times: http://www.altavistasports.com/results/2009results/melbourne5k042509.html. I know there were some photos taken as well but I don’t know where they are. If I find a link I’ll update the post.

I was planning on getting some extra practice in with it before league this week but that didn’t happen.  I was a little worried about using it for the first time in league with out a good amount of practice with it since it is drilled a bit differently than I am used to.  I ended up having no problems in league.  All my games were above my average.  My first game was above 200.  I had a few goofs where I threw the ball incorrectly but that is just something that I have to learn.

With this being my third race I knew my biggest problem from past races was determining a good pace. One of the people that I work with often started just in front of me.  I had informed him that I was going to beat him this race so he better keep up with me.  I have been saying this for a while because he is a very strong runner and has some very excellent times (although he says he hasn’t been training for a while).  We kept a steady pace with me just behind him.  As we crossed the first mile I was very excited; I was doing seven minute miles.  I was very pleased with this and I felt that I could keep that up for the next two.  The race continued on and I was still on pace at about the two mile mark.  I was going strong.  Between the first and second miles I had overtaken my friend.  He wasn’t far behind though, I could hear his steps as he was right on my heels.  At about the two and a half mile mark I felt it; I was wore out.  I kept running strong though but I could feel myself tiring.  My friend as this point overtook me.  I wasn’t overly concerned about this.  I figured even if I didn’t beat him I was going to be near twenty one minutes when I finished.  Unfortunately this wasn’t true.  When I caught my first glimpse of the clock it had already passed the twenty two minute mark.  Now I was just frustrated that I had been going so strong and fell apart in the last half mile.  I crossed the finish line at twenty two minutes and thirty one seconds.  That was disappointing.  My friend finished just a few seconds ahead of me.

I really can’t complain much about my time.  Out of 553 racers (some where walking) I came in thirty sixth.  Not to shabby.  My overall pace for the race was seven minues and fifteen seconds a mile.  That is definately a personal best (for a 5K and only counting ones that are recorded).  In my age group I came in third and even got a medal.  All this without having been running in about two weeks.  The next race I know that I will run in is the art festival 5K and that is in April.  That gives me plenty of time to get out and do some training (since I don’t run if it’s cold).  My goal for the art festival 5K is a pace of seven minute miles or less.  I think that’s reasonable but I need to train hard for it since it requires me to run over the causeway twice!

I got this snippet of information from roadnottaken.info.  I quickly glanced though the site but was only really interested in what President Carter had done.  I wonder what he is thinking now, thirty years later.  An even better thought, what are the people thinking now that thought the solar panels were a waste of time and effort?  Have they changed their minds?  Should we have taken that road?

I’m going to end this post here since I don’t think a lengthy explaniation is needed and I will see you in future posts!