Notes
After yesterday's race left me unfulfilled I went home and searched the internet for another race on Sunday. I just couldn't have 25:11 as my best effort for the weekend. I never raced back to back, but felt I should try. I found the Belle Senior run which was another first year event that only gave awards in the Master's division age groups all the way up to 80+.
Got to the location early, got my race day registration and started to stretch and noticed right away that I was still sore from yesterday. I did a warm up run out to the mile-1 marker and noticed some upper abdominal pain on my way back. I probably pulled a muscle somewhere in the woods yesterday. This really had me a bit dejected and hoped I could run through it in the race.
There were about 100 runners and as I scanned the crowd, none of the usual studs were there and the average age was north of 55. At the start I tried to keep my pace in check and was hoping for 6:15. I had settled into second place and was worried I might be going too fast, but it felt about right. Turns out I came through at 6:10. The guy in first was about 10 seconds in front. Not sure what happened the second mile but could see the guy in front was pulling away. I came through mile-2 at 12:40 with just a little pain in my abdomen.
At this point I tried to bear down and pick up the pace. While I didn't gain much on the guy in front I felt a fairly steady pace. And more importantly wasn't getting passed and didn't hear anyone breathing down my neck. As we turned the corner with about 1/4 mile to go I thought I heard the guy on the bullhorn at the 3mile mark call out 17:55 to the leader and realized then if I could hang on I could get a decent time. Finished 19:21, 2nd overall and 1st in my age group(although I think the overall winner was in my group). A PB by 17seconds. Very pleased with the effort after racing yesterday.
The real credit goes to the "true" seniors that were out there running and giving it their best effort. And their sense of humor is really something. After my race I went for a cool down run while trying to encourage those still on the course. One guy bringing up the rear said "where did everyone go?" another said "someone has to finish last...to his credit though he wasn't last". On my way back from the cool down I saw a guy still running/walking and decided to finish the course with him. Went about 1/2 mile with him chatting about this and that. He finished in 45:00. The guy who won the 80+ division had a time of 30:xx. WOW. I hope I still have the drive when I get their age.