Thank You

Thanksgiving Day afternoon, and family dinner is in the final stages of preparation. Everyone contributed rather than leaving it all to Joan, though she still orchestrated and did the lion's share.

I got up early to do the inaugural 5K "Thank You" run held right in the 4S Ranch neighborhood. It wasn't the big production that the Fr. Joe's and Run for the Hungry are, but it was fun, and I liked doing a mostly trail run with hills with a running field of less than 1000. The trails were a little sloppy in some low spots. I had previewed the course with a warmup jog and felt it best to use my old Saucony's, which are starting to fall apart.

I must've been anxious to get to it, because I woke up a little after 2AM from a dream about the event. In my dream, the staging area was the community park and the awaiting crowd was huge, with clusters of cross country teams participating. I must have been subconsciously channeling ancient memories of multi-team meets.

I initially thought it was 6AM because I looked at my watch and saw 6:10. But that turned out to be the stop watch function which I guess I hadn't turned off for some reason. I was confused when I got downstairs and saw the clock on the DVR read 2:15. I thought maybe there was a malfunction or a loss of power, but other clocks confirmed the time. So, even though I was now wide awake, I made myself go back to bed.

I picked up my race packet at 6:30 and spent the next hour warming up (which is when I previewed the lower portion of the course). I probably put in 2.5 miles before the race even began.

The race crowd was nothing like my dream. It was a small, neighborly kind of crowd and the smallest event I'd done all year. I felt good and ready to go...until the starting horn. For some reason, the opening stretch on Dove Creek was uncomfortable. I tried not to sprint out too quickly, but I was huffing and puffing within a few blocks and starting to doubt myself. Later, I'd run the course backwards and was surprised to see that the road actually had an incline during that first 440yds. That must've been the reason.

I settled into a good sub-7 minute/mile pace and believe I hit 1-mile around 6:40. I was passed by a pair of young girls who looked super fit and were striding like they were barely taxed. I was taxing out though and had to let them extend ahead of me. The trail below Ivy Gate undulates and I tried exploit the downhills as much as I could. The puddles and mud weren't too bad.

2 mile point was along the uphill grade of old Black Mountain road, and I definitely slowed there. The course veered off of the road onto a switchback trail that leads up to the high point at a pocket park on Deer Trail. At the top my HR was 171. (I just noted yesterday that 171 is very near 100% for me.)

The rest of the course was flat or downhill, and after a little recovery I picked up my leg turnover again and finished strong. I didn't challenge for a PR though. I think I barely beat 22 minutes. The hill in the 3rd mile was just too much.

Not a lot of fanfare at the finish. I drank some water and ate a banana. No medals. No divisional winners. No timing tag. No expo or speeches. I let about 20 minutes go by to let the later runners and walkers thin out, and then I set out to run the course in reverse. My assignment today was to run 7 miles at HM pace, so I just wanted to put in a few more easy miles.

I ran the route backwards and finished in about 25 minutes, keeping my average HR down around 150. All told, I logged 8.2-8.5 miles in about 65 minutes of running time, albeit with some long breaks between each segment. I hope that accomplishes what Mike wanted my 7-mile HM-pace run to accomplish.

My lungs are sore from the cold air. Haven't felt that in a long time.

No run tomorrow. 16.5-17.0 miles LSD on Saturday. And mostly likely total rest on Sunday.