The race so nice I ran it twice. I started off easy but it didn't matter, I was
leading by10 meters at the bottom of the little hill. I quickly slowed
down on the climb and almost immediately was passed by a bunch of
people, including my dang nephew who I so wanted to beat. And Seth
strode by everybody like he was in a completely different race with more
downhill. Good grief. Crossing the big meadow I managed to keep the
nephew in range but I had to walk momentarily and he did not. I fell
back to 10th place or so by the water stop in the second meadow, but my
climbing legs were getting happier so I was barely walking at all.
Uphill splits not too bad, 8:22, 9:08 and 9:29 OK maybe a little trouble
there on the last big climb but the best was yet to come. I was
alone like usual at the top so I went into downhill monster mode right
away, hoping to make up at least a little time and not get totally
smoked by the little butthead. I got 5:48 on the first mile down, so
decent. Then at the top of the big meadow I caught sight of him just
leaving in front of Amber, totally phoning it in! Only 40 seconds in
front with a little over a half mile to go. I cranked the downhill
machine into 5th gear and upped the turnover, and as the pace fell
through 4:30 I could see that I was visibly gaining on them. I blew by
Amber at a 4 flat just after the little meadow and came around a corner
and there he was, not 20 meters in front. No freeking way!! I
immediately slammed it to the firewall and blasted him with a 3:45
surge, but he was not going to let me get it that easily. With less than
a tenth to the park we Mario Karted at ridiculous speed. I knew that if
I could jump the rail at the end of the trail before he did that I had
him because nobody smokes me on downhill grass ever. I did it! I
was 6 feet in front - he's toast. I went to max speed + and to my horror
I could hear him catching me! We were already at a 3:20 and dropping
but I tried to eke out just a little more - no dice. I thought I was
going to tumble into the finish as we passed through 19 MPH but
fortunately we ran out of course before he caught me and I beat him by
like two feet. Totally awesome finish. To top it off I got a 20 second
PR on the course and broke my 1 mile record by 9 seconds, 4:46 for the
last mile.
I am so toast at Freedom 5k next week :)
I ran the course again to cool down and did course cleanup. 46 minutes is much easier than 36.
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