First race in 10 weeks or so if I don't count the 10K in Michigan I dropped out of 2 months ago with achilles and calf issues, which caused me to miss two weeks of running. Really happy with how this went considering it was mid-80s and very humid when the gun went off at 7pm. I love racing in the evening but it's always more fun to do so in the Spring or Fall. Anyway, I ran 18:24 (5:55 pace) and finished 8th overall (3rd in my AG which was 40-49 - this race does 10 year blocks). I ran a smart and conservative race, hitting the 2 mile split in 11:55 before finishing my last 1.2 at just under 5:50 pace. A lot of young gym rats did this race for some reason, so the start was a bit crazy with a bunch of beefy guys sprinting out fast only to get reeled in by the ectomorphs after their two to three minutes of fame wore off. There seems to be a new breed of younger guy that seemingly does nothing except the bench press for workouts - I keep seeing all these guys with ridiculous upper bodies but skinny legs. I have nothing against guys lifting but I hate it when big guys think they can do well at my sport or any endurance sport for that matter! US Olympian Abdi Abdirahman is my height but somehow weighs 10 pounds less than me! That's the reality of this sport where even one pound over ideal racing weight can translate into a loss of 2 seconds per mile.
Next up for me is the Bay Days 5 miler on July 4, probably my favorite race every year. Hopefully I should be able to run the same pace I did yesterday at the longer distance, which would translate to something in the 29:30-29:40 range.
