Dave's Addiction

Sat, Sep 03, 2016

Sat, 03 Sep 2016 06:00:00

Third race in three weeks, but I figured I would do OK because I felt good all week. Curtis came so i was motivated, and I didn't realize it at first but Pepi was there. I wish I had realized it earlier. The race started and all three of us went out at the customary speed, but Curtis quickly dropped back a little because he didn't want to thrash himself before St George. But Pepi stayed right with me for the first mile (4:55) and started to pull ahead as I was unwilling to trash myself so early. I stayed pretty constant (5:06, 5:09, 5:04, 5:10) then again on the milder hill (5:18, 5:17) then a little less steep (5:34, 5:27). But then I just didn't care as much as I should have. Pepi had pulled to 200 meters and Curtis was not visible and I was sick of pushing it so I just let back a little (5:59). To my surprise, Pepi did too! We both sort of phoned it in for the last three miled (6:19, 6:17, 6:13). But it was only then that I realized who it was. Had I known earlier, I would have hung up the phone. Also he got a flower arrangement made entirely of fruit. I really need to stop phoning it in at the end :) But 2nd overall was cool and I almost caught the last guy I know of who is my age or older and faster than me. Except Curtis.

Sat, Aug 27, 2016

Sat, 27 Aug 2016 06:00:00

I usually hate these Ragnar things but this one was pretty fun. Everybody was trying hard, nobody biffed it, and we won. Who could ask for more? Well wecould have used a 12th team member and because we didn't haveone I had to run 4 legs along with Walter and Steve but I got to run it in at the end and that was totally cool. The first leg was 3.8 downhill, but it was also 4 PM and 90 degrees. We were near the front of the pro wave and I tried to catch the Google guy. I was gaining on him for the first two miles but then the heat got to me and I had to back off. Didn't lose much though, 5:17 average pace.

The second leg was at 11 PM and it was still pretty hot, in the high 70s. I got to run through 7 miles of the industrial wasteland of NW Portland. Joy. The third leg at 6 AM was much nicer though, it was 4 miles in the country, not a single McDonalds in sight. Everybody was pretty tired by then and we all agreed that nobody cared about the 4th leg but we just aren't wired that way so we all ended up putting a lot of effort into it. I started out slow on mine but it had another cool hill and at the bottom the van pulled up. The guys said that if I could make it to the finish in 22 minutes we would win. My watch said that would require a 7:50 pace or so, and 6:30 was still withing reach. So I reached it and we won by 4 minutes. Gotta love it :)

Sat, Aug 20, 2016

Sat, 20 Aug 2016 06:00:00

Another Hobble Creek grind, but this time everybody seemed to be holding back more than usual. I went through mile 1 in 4:48 (a bit fast) but nobody passed me until 2.5 in - for a minute, I thought everybody had decided to jog it. Ha ha. My overly zippy first mile made me unable to break 5:30 in a consistent fashion for the remaining miles, which made the remainder of the race a bit hard. I hoped I could stay ahead of Curtis but he passed me just before the first dip in Mapleton and there was no way I was going to catch him going up that hill. I slogged through the flat canal road and enjoyed the Maple street downhill to the end, but he still beat me by 50 seconds or so. Nice day anyway.