Notes
Temp 50 Wind 7 mph.
Perfect day to race a mile. Course is fairly flat, some smooth pavement to start and finish on, rough pavement in the middle, and a 0.18 mile loop through a cemetery on a dirt (sandy) rutty road. First time to race or "time trial" my mile. Original goal was to break 5:30. Rough week with stomach and muscle soreness had me thinking should be happy to perform at VO2 equalivant of 5:40. Good warm up...back to thinking maybe 5:30?? Set Garmin alerts for every 2:00 minutes.
Thinking Roy L. and a couple of Del's 20-something trainees (and about a dozen teenagers) will bust out fast. Expecting Hammer to go out with Billy L., maybe 5:15ish. Will keep them as close as possible for as long as possible and try to hang on and finish. Nothing 5:15 m/m about the start. Had SLOWED to 4:40 m/m pace by 0.10. I was still around 5:30 m/m at quarter (now wishing I'd set auto-lap for quarter splits but didn't think about it).
Turn into cemetery is 0.47 into race. Hit it somewhere around 2.30 or 2:40. Hammer and Billy L. have opened some, but still close. I'm running a 5:35 m/m pace on approach. Lose it on the soft surface and small climb. Cannot get my footing and slow to a low of 6:41 m/m. Eventually get it back and get locked in on a 5:57 m/m pace about 3:20 into race.
Coming out of cemetery pull up to 17 yr old Jerry C. HS basketball stud goes into a surge. Stay with it and catch him again just over 100-125 meters to the finish line. He kicks it in again. I'm 48, he's 17, know who is going to win this war. Go into my kick about 4:50 in. First sight of race clock reads 5:0X. Bear down more and cross line at a 4:51 m/m pace.
Final time 5:24. I'll take that in my rookie mile race. Hammer goes 5:04 to win Masters OA (on one leg...way to "warrior up", sicko.) His OA win hands me 1st AG. SplitMaster Schmiz takes 2nd AG. Splitmaster Team takes top three master's spots.
Quick breath, drop off chip and back to get the wife. Meet her coming out of cemetery and she's walking. Had turned her ankle in a rut when a "fat guy stopped" in front of her. Mrs. Hammer gets there about same time and we start running again. She's hurting, but pissed. Never seen her move this fast. She finishes strong for a 10:39. About a minute better than she's ever run...and racing just 6 days after she ran her first mile ever without stopping. All got much, much better a little while later when she found out she'd won her AG!
Fun, fun event. First race in SplitMaster Winter Race Series. Del put on a big time show in a town with a population of 100. Another great job. Posed with the Hammers and all our hardware after race. Both our wifes take home AG awards in their first races. They must have awesome trainers.