London's 10k Run - 8th Overall

This was a great event! I had a lot of fun, and had the opportunity to do it alongside my sister in-law, Abrianna! It was a blast!

The goal for race had been to work on my running base beforehand for several months, and then test my speed alongside other pure-runners to see how I was doing...

.....well we had a change of plans.....

1st - In mid-december, my knee starting flaring up again. It took us a few weeks to figure out that it was simply a muscle imbalance issue. I hadn't been working on my hip and lateral stability strength enough. So my knee simply wasn't supported enough. That put us a little bit behind schedule is terms of building the running base... I have a tendency to "freak out" when I start to feel a little bit of pain anywhere. So we probably would have made more progress these past couple months if I'd listened to Coach and calmed down about it. But it's water under the bridge now.

2nd - Five days before the event (and the day before we went down to Arizona), I got an AWFUL cold! My wife had caught the same bug a week a half beforehand, and I'd worked really hard not to get it. A week later, we thought I was safe; but then *BAM!!* It hit me. Ug. It was nasty. (Funny: My wife, is MUCH better at pushing through sickness than I am. So she had been suffering for over a week without complaining much, and this thing put me flat on my back.... Naturally, she ribbed me a little bit for not giving her more sympathy...)

Thursday and Friday, I was able to get in a couple of short training runs. Nothing hard. Nothing long. I just wanted to get my legs moving. I wasn't sure how Saturday was going to go, but coach just told me to "listen to my body." I would do it, I just wasn't sure if would result in me wheezing and pushing through pain the whole way along the course, or if I'd actually be able to put together a smooth and solid run.

Race morning: 0530 wake up time.

Up and at em! I joined my sister in-law Abrianna out in the kitchen for some pre-race food/fuel. She doesn't like to eat much before events. I like to eat a BUNCH. I ate a Hammer Bar, a honey-almond-milk concoction, and granola with goats milk! YUM!

We hopped in the car and drove to the scene--

.....blah blah blah blah blah blah......

-- and then we were lined up for the race!!

They blew the horn and a front pack immediately surged ahead. Having witnessed a few cross country races in my life, I knew that if I wanted a shot at the top 10 (which was my goal), I'd have to stick with the front group, or risk getting dropped. I also knew that if I went out too fast, I'd blow up and not finish at all. I hadn't run 10k in almost 2 months. I had to be careful and find a balance.

I "let" some of the fast front runners take off. There were a few REALLY REALLY fast guys who were leaving everybody behind. You're always going to have a few of those I figure... But the truth is.... only in my dreams, where I could run ridiculously fast (and got picked up by a helicopter at the beginning and deposited near the finish line) could I think of keeping up with those guys. So the word "let" really means "watched them disappear, choked on their dust, and scanned the skies hopelessly for friendly helicopters..." 


Giving up on my dreams for a ride in the sky, I decided I might as well start running. I settled into a comfortable - yet faster than comfortable - pace with two other guys. I rode on the shoulder of one of them, and let them pull me along. We hit the first mile, and I figured we were going at about 6:20 mile pace.

Then just after the mile marker, a group of 5 guys caught us, and surged ahead...... huh? That's odd... I usually don't see that after the first mile. But I decided that I was going to run my race. Not theirs.

At mile 2, the speed of my group was dropping a bit too low for what I knew I could handle, and so struck out to catch that group of 5 that had passed us a mile before. I worked my way up, and slowly picked them off by mile 3.

Amateurs. HA.

At mile 3, I saw another pack of 4. They were about 300 yards up. I saw that one guy in the back appeared to be struggling a little bit. I thought to myself, "Okay, this is your chance. Push hard for the next couple miles and you can probably catch them..."

But it was not to be.

The next three miles were brutal. As I said, I hadn't run a 10k in almost two months. But I was determined to not blow up. Without looking back to see how far that group of 5 was, I repeated one of my sayings to myself, "Never slow down. Only maintain or speed up." and "The faster you run, the sooner you're done."

I spotted the finish line about a half-mile away. (The race is through a bunch of dirt roads in cotton farm land - so you can see a long ways off.) I pushed as hard as I could, and held it all the way across the line. As I was getting close, I spotted my wife and father & mother in-law on the side cheering and taking pictures. I crossed the line at the clock hit 40 minutes and 10 seconds.

I did the usual wheezeing routine after I crossed the finish; and then it was back-slaps all around. It was so cool to have my wife - now holding our 8 week old daughter - waiting for me at the finish. Words can't describe how cool it is to think of them throughout the event - as I'm pushing myself - to then see them as I'm finishing.

I think this race was an honest result of where my 10k is at now - especially considering I ran the last 3 miles all by myself. It turned out that I got 8th place overall, and received a medal for 2nd place in my age-group. I'm very satisfied with that.

AND. I had NO knee pain. Marian did her best to not say, "I told you so...." But we both knew that she had been right. I need to work on my mental discipline and not freak out when I feel a little twinge somewhere.

To GOD BE THE GLORY. This was an excellent event! Too bad it's the last year they're running it. I'll have to find some other run to do when I'm in AZ next year.