For years I would finish in the middle of the pack in my age group. 

During the past few years I've been working my way into the top 10 - 15 % of my AG. 

Saturday I entered a local 5 k hoping to set a PR.  My PR was 23:32, set in August 2012.

I lined up near the start because we had to quickly funnel onto a narrow path - and I felt like I could hold my own among the 10 people near the line.  The RD asked the slower runners to move back some.  I was in the second wave of about 5 people.  We all looked at each other and the ones behind us but stayed put where we were.  The other 122 people behind us kind of backed up a little, which was nice.

I've been training and running several races lately - 5 miler, 11 k, and 2 marathons since October 21st.  I also ran 6 miles at a pretty fast pace at 4:00 PM on Friday - 18 hours before the start of this event.  I was thinking about LTH when I did that because it sounds like something he would do..........and I think it helped.

I was ready for this race to start and could hardly stand still waiting to go.  When the race began I took off and held a 7:05 pace through the first mile.

Mile 2 - a few people started to fade and I pulled ahead even though I slowed down to a 7:21 pace for this lap.

Mile 3 - Ok, thinking about LTH's strategy tips here.  Trying to test the young guy who is on my heels without letting him see that my legs are getting a little wobbly.  I was also gaining ground on a guy ahead of me.  I made a stupid mistake as we reached the final stretch.  When the race winner (the kid in yellow shirt) came back out for his cool-down, I made a comment to him as we passed because he and I had been talking about his goal prior to the race.  The problem is, when I made the comment, the guy in front of me could tell that I was getting closer.  He kicked it in a little.  I won't do that again.  I had a pace of 7:12 for this mile and 5:55 for the final kick. 

I finished 2nd out of 15 in the 40-49 year old division.  Overall I finished 10th out of 132. 

As soon as I finished I spoke to the guy I was trying to catch to find out how old he is.  Same age as me and 12 seconds faster.........darn.  That 12 seconds looks like a short distance on paper, but it was a big gap out there on the course.  He and I had a good time talking about the race, PR's, strategy, etc and I made a new friend and rival all at the same time.  He did let me know that when he heard me talking he realized just how close I was, so that was a pretty dumb mistake on my part.

Final time and new PR was 22:24.  And I won a nice medal too!

In the post race photo I'm the one in the back row wearing a blue vest, white visor, and sunglasses. 

Thanks for reading!

tinman11

Nice race, way to go!

Great job!  Congrats on the AG award!

What a fantastic race!  Congrats on your new PR!  I'm sure that you'll continue to get faster in 2013!

You look really happy there.

Very cool! Congrats on that new PR and the AG award!

Great race! Congrats on the PR and AG award.

Great photo too.

Congratulations on the PR and the award. You're right, 12 seconds equals a fair amount of distance, or at least it seems like it when you're the one behind the other guy.