Amazing third
I had another amazing success this weekend - got a medal in a 10k race, third place for my age group!
I figured from my running efforts on shorter distances I could run near a 6:40 mile for 10k (which is a nice 20:00 for each 3 miles), and I foolishly practiced a racing effort on Thursday night and completed a 10k in 41:49, or a 6:44 pace.
I figured that's all I had, and it was foolish to wear myself down 34 hours before a race, but my rationale was that I more wanted to know what I can do than have to fight for it in a competitive situation.
Well, the race came and I felt pretty good. My legs felt strong the whole way, and just my breathing slowed me. I ran with a couple guys on the way over, and another couple of people on the return, including a woman! I'm afraid I teased her a bit, like saying to one of the volunteers "Look, I'm keeping up with a girl!" Oooo... supposed to be some sort of ironic compliment to her, but overall just mean.
It was fun near the end I made up a story that three of us were in the olympics in front and I allocated the Gold to the guy who wasn't saying much, and Silver to the girl whom I was tormenting, and I'd take the Bronze. It seemed a fair distribution, although I added that they still had to work for it!
Well, the quiet guy kept going and pulled slowly ahead. I kept up with the girl a fair ways, and "let" her take the lead, mainly because I was tired, but my pace wasn't much slower, so I just stayed behind to the end, and managed to pull ahead by 2 seconds from the woman. I REALLY figured she'd pull ahead, and she was surely better than me on a good day, but this day I had more energy at the end.
The quiet guy got second for my age group, but I had nothing on him to finish ahead, even if he was only 6 seconds ahead in the end. I was also passed by a young 20's guy. He said he had been trailing me the whole race and apparently running below his limit because he had plenty of energy to pull ahead in the end. I encouraged him and he talked to me after the race and said it was his first and wondered how well he did. I think he was 6th for the 20-29 males. I didn't know then, but knew he did very well and told him.
There were at least 3 30-39 men behind me within 30 seconds, all within striking distance had they wanted a medal, so it was amazing I kept up for the medal.
I guess the good thing after getting a few medals is you don't have to worry about "nearly winning" as much, and you can as well encourage others, and challenge them to do their best.
On the humble side, I would have been 8th for the 40-49 men age group, so I've got some harder competitors coming up in a few years!
So that's 2 THIRD places in 8 days - 5k and 10k!
Crazy it should be important to me at all, but my PR times are more precious as absolute measures of success than random competition in smaller races. (<500 people)
I don't know what I'll do next, but looked up up-coming races, so we'll see!
I figured from my running efforts on shorter distances I could run near a 6:40 mile for 10k (which is a nice 20:00 for each 3 miles), and I foolishly practiced a racing effort on Thursday night and completed a 10k in 41:49, or a 6:44 pace.
I figured that's all I had, and it was foolish to wear myself down 34 hours before a race, but my rationale was that I more wanted to know what I can do than have to fight for it in a competitive situation.
Well, the race came and I felt pretty good. My legs felt strong the whole way, and just my breathing slowed me. I ran with a couple guys on the way over, and another couple of people on the return, including a woman! I'm afraid I teased her a bit, like saying to one of the volunteers "Look, I'm keeping up with a girl!" Oooo... supposed to be some sort of ironic compliment to her, but overall just mean.
It was fun near the end I made up a story that three of us were in the olympics in front and I allocated the Gold to the guy who wasn't saying much, and Silver to the girl whom I was tormenting, and I'd take the Bronze. It seemed a fair distribution, although I added that they still had to work for it!
Well, the quiet guy kept going and pulled slowly ahead. I kept up with the girl a fair ways, and "let" her take the lead, mainly because I was tired, but my pace wasn't much slower, so I just stayed behind to the end, and managed to pull ahead by 2 seconds from the woman. I REALLY figured she'd pull ahead, and she was surely better than me on a good day, but this day I had more energy at the end.
The quiet guy got second for my age group, but I had nothing on him to finish ahead, even if he was only 6 seconds ahead in the end. I was also passed by a young 20's guy. He said he had been trailing me the whole race and apparently running below his limit because he had plenty of energy to pull ahead in the end. I encouraged him and he talked to me after the race and said it was his first and wondered how well he did. I think he was 6th for the 20-29 males. I didn't know then, but knew he did very well and told him.
There were at least 3 30-39 men behind me within 30 seconds, all within striking distance had they wanted a medal, so it was amazing I kept up for the medal.
I guess the good thing after getting a few medals is you don't have to worry about "nearly winning" as much, and you can as well encourage others, and challenge them to do their best.
On the humble side, I would have been 8th for the 40-49 men age group, so I've got some harder competitors coming up in a few years!
So that's 2 THIRD places in 8 days - 5k and 10k!
Crazy it should be important to me at all, but my PR times are more precious as absolute measures of success than random competition in smaller races. (<500 people)
I don't know what I'll do next, but looked up up-coming races, so we'll see!
posted by Ares Olympus at 8:45 AM
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