Thanks. So there's this guy, We'll call him Timmy. I've been chasing him for years, now. Every race, I get closer. Technically, I beat him by about 10 minutes in the metric marathon, but he had never run nearly that far, so he said before the race that he was going to take it easy. So I can't count that. Yesterday, I had him in my sights. I might have been able to kick it into high gear for the last quarter mile, but I've got this marathon coming up in three weeks, and I've been nursing some nagging pains that I didn't want to aggravate. I opened it up a bit, but then he did, too. I was catching him, but not nearly quickly enough. Still, I finished just over ten seconds behind him. (I thought it was five, but not according to the official results. Stupid officials. ) I was so happy about getting so close, that it took me a half hour to realize how well I had done. At the beginning of the year, I had set a 9 minute pace as my goal for a 5 miler. I achieved that in August with an 8:30 pace for an 8K. I decided that I was going to relax durnig this race. I had a long run the next day, and I didn't want to mess anything up so close to the marathon. Unfortunately, I forgot my Garmin, and I missed the first mile mark. For the other miles, I sort of realized that I was moving kinda well, but mostly I was enjoying the race. It was at Downs Park, in the 'dena (Pasadena, MD). The park is at the point where the North River and the Magothy River converge into the Chesapeake Bay. There isn't much to the park besides trees, but the trees are gorgeous, especially during the race. The leaves have changed colors but haven't fallen quite yet. There were a lot of really nice, interesting people. We had a great time. I tried to get people to sing Ona Move by Michael Franti with me, but I guess nobody knew the song. ("Everybody ona move / na na na / Everybody let's grove / na na na") But I digress. About a half hour after finishing, I ran into my adopted coach Tara. She kept talking about how I was moving REALLY fast. I agreed that I felt great, but it took a while to realize that I had run a 7:33 pace. Holy Crap! That was about the most relaxed I've ever run a race! So, I'm pretty stoked. I set a lot of goals for myself this year, and although they were all PRs, I felt pretty good about being able to achieve them. But this one, I really blew out of the water. And I had a lot of fun doing it.

Wow, quite a great race

It's hard to read the miles -- looks like the first "mile 12" is a typo for "mile 11", but it looks like you go counter-clockwise around the park loop, which means you have to go down the steep hill there (just at the half-way point). Ugh. On the plus side, it looks like you run the outer park path, so in an emergency there is one bathroom just off of it (um, between the mile 7 pin and the mile 22 pin, I think). Plus there is the park nature center c. mile 12 pin. Gee I am tempted by this.

Tempted by the bathroom or the marathon. pful.

Heh I rang and talked to them, and I'm clear on all but the Rehoboth end, and I am happy to just follow the arrows and volunteers at that end. I'll run either the marathon myself, or the relay, depending on someone else.

I'm doing it relay with my wife. Packet? Do we have to pick that up ahead of time? I didn't ask about that.

Race day morning from 0530 to 0630 or something like that. You running it?

Hey as long as we're doing such a great job of staying on-topic, I got another question -- do I have to join the Striders before Jan 1 or after Jan 1 or when -- if my goal is to pay the $20 fee to preregister for the entire championship series for next year (I like the idea of running a bunch of different distances, and I like the idea of doing it cheaply)? I think I saw the answer somewhere when I was reading all the stuff at the site, or else someone told me something, but I'm old and forgetful...