Well, it was a great day for lots of my friends, however….

We did the Wounded Warriors 5k today. I was hoping to get finished around 21 minutes. Clay was setting my goal at 21:30. Secretly, I was thinking I might have a good day, although I was feeling a little funny. My sinuses have been REALLY bad the last couple of weeks,  and my neck/traps have been tight all week (but getting better.)  My knee however is great and my right foot plantar fascitis (which has been acting up a bit lately, was also practically non existent this morning.)

Some of my HDR friends were there: Clay, the Rubles, the Gutierrez family, Grant Barnett, Jim Haskett, Jessica Harper, the Diorios, Jim Pandya, Bev O’Neal, Joel and Amber Lozano, Charlie Horn, and Star Ritzendollar. Most of us HDR peeps lined up near the front of the pack. The race started with the Rubles, Clay, Jim Haskett and Grant Barnett all taking off ahead of me. I caught up with Grant in the first half mile and got by Jim at around 3/4.  I concentrated on keeping a really quick turn over and I was in 2:1 breathing almost from the beginning. The first mile was 6:48. Clay and the Rubles were getting smaller and smaller as they pulled away from me.

Around a mile and a half I caught one of my students, Jason and I was able to pull away, even though my clock shows I was slowing. Mile 2 was 7:04. Around 2 and a half miles I could see Clay making his move and beginning to pull away from Erik. I could not tell whether Cade was going with him. Glancing behind me I saw what I thought was Grant so I focused hard to finish strong. My legs did not feel particularly light or springy, and I dipped into 1 to 1 breathing off and on. I held my postion. It turned out that the person behind was a stranger, but Krysti was right behind him!

Cade, Clay and Erik were all under 20 minutes! Krysti and I were under 22! All were excited, until someone asked about the course length. It turned out to be 3.01 according to my Garmin. I double checked it on map my run and got the same thing…..

Here is the data I acquired from the timing company – race central. They included age graded scores… I also extrapolated the race time for 3.11 instead of 3.01:

 
I should note that Jim Pandya, who works at the hospital was called into work this morning and arrived late to the race. I saw him starting as I was coming in to finish! He says he caught some people out there, though! Way to stick with the plan!