This past Saturday I ran the Jog Days of Summer in 5K in Atlanta.  Last year, I ran it in 27:28.  So I set my goal to beat that number.  During the third mile, I knew that I would finish about a minute slower than last year. I was still running hard.  As we were turning left off Wieuca Rd towards the uphill finish, I continued running hard but I did not finish by trying a strong kick.  I crossed the finish line at 28:19 seemingly satisfied that was the best that I could do that morning.

Later that evening I was reviewing the online results for my age group M 55-60 and noted that I finished 8/19.  However, because even though I'm a middle of the pack runner, I'm still competitive. One guy  in my age group finished at 28:18 gun time.  One second faster than me and he finished 7th.  It irked the heck out of me!  Because I was complacent as I approached the finish line by not enduring a kick, I let someone beat me in an age group standing in which I had control.

Sunday, I repeated the mantra, "Never Again".

Has that happened to anyone else running a race?

In my first 10K, I had 4 or 5 guys pass me in the last 200-300 yards.  I was kicking a bit but not really hard.  When I saw the results, it turned out that one of the guys who passed me was in my age group.  It didn't make any difference in terms of AG awards as we were both well out of that league but it pissed the hell out of me and I swore I would never, ever get outkicked in a race again.  I even do some specific workouts to work on my finishing kick.  I won't say that I have never been outkicked since then but no one in my age group has managed to do it.

I ran a 10K this past February and was having an OK day.  Not good but not awful.  Just "meh."  There is one local runner in my AG and I knew he was targeting a marathon PR similar to mine so I knew we were roughly equivalent.  I had passed him around Mile 2 and thought he was well in my rear view mirror.  Instead, he came up on my right shoulder with maybe 1/3 of a mile to go.  My exact thought was, "oh hell no."  And not, "oh hell no he's going to beat me" but "oh hell no there is no way he is getting around me."  So, I started accelerating and every 200 yards I tried to accelerate some more.  I ended up passing 3 or 4 runners that I was going to just let go until this guy came up on my shoulder and, in the end, I beat him by a couple of seconds.

I won my AG at a 10K race because a guy I passed about 600m from the finish didn't think I could possibly be in the same AG so never even tried to stay with me.

This is a great benefit to not looking your age.

Every Thanksgiving I hear the tale of how 1 of my friends passed me in the last 50 yards after keeping me in his sights for a while. I had no clue where he was or cared at the time. It doesn't matter that I have beaten him every time since by a comfortable margin since that day.

Recently 1 guy I know said that he hoped to beat me or something to that effect pre-race. I never let him pass after the 2 mile mark and beat him by 25 yards. When AG awards aren't usually in my future (just once) I keep myself amused in other ways.

If I am stinking up the joint to the point where I have little or no desire to kick at the end then I have likely fallen short of my goal(s) anyway, and thus learning after the fact that it cost me some age group bling only adds insult to injury.

Yes that sucks but it is akin to having someone kick my dog in the head after my girl ran away with the mailman, you could sort of see it coming.