Notes
Ran the Parley Pratt, an out and back race on the MKT. This year we had to go east since the bridge isn't quite finished going west. I ran a 2 mile warm up with Hugh, Sam, Phil, and Andy. Race started about 8 am after the pre-race ceremony. I started off fast. It felt fast and according to my GPS reading 5-something pace, it was fast. I started out behind Matt and he was in 2nd place. Figured that was too fast, but I felt good and passed Matt. About mile 0.7 Andy S. & Matt pass me. I just want to maintain close to a 6 min pace. My goal was to try to run about 6:03. First mile was 5:50.
The temp was around 70F so not too bad. First mile I wasn't breathing hard at all, but after that I had to work to keep the pace. At turn around I had just slightly over 2 mi so course was pretty close. 2nd mile I had slowed to 6:13. I had a comfortable lead on Phil in 5th place and Andy S. & Matt had a comfortable lead on me. The just over 6 min pace felt pretty good so that is what I continued to maintain and 3rd mile was also 6:13. With 1 mile to go, I tried to pick up a little. I could see the guy that was in the lead ahead of me, but too far to catch. Ran mile 4 in 6:00 and the last .03 extra in 10 seconds. 4th place overall. Even with the slightly long course, I had a 2 sec PR over the same race in 2007. The course in the past the other direction has always been just a bit short. I felt really good about my time with the longer course. I had felt tired all week so took running easy on Tu & Th and then skipped my Th weight workout. This was enough to recover a bit and run a decent race for me.
This year there was an assortment of breakfast food, but I really didn't feel like eating anything so had some kind of breakfast bar someone had made and no idea what it was. I think I was supposed to pour syrup on it since it didn't taste sweet at all. They soon announced the awards. Andy S. won overall (23:37 I think) as well as my age group and Matt was second. Andy had already left so we took his award, a painted watermelon and dropped off at his house on the way home. Then went home and ran a 10+ mile course with Hugh.