Back to the Races

I have to admit that I started the race thinking that it would be really rough. Those bridges looked pretty rough... even if I did get a taste of uphill last week. I was mostly just happy to be back at a race. Apparently, there were about 900 people signed up. When the cannon sounded (oh, yeah... it was a heck of a cannon), I was way in the back of the pack, but I was able to bob and weave my way through the start and finally get a pretty good pace going. And it felt really good.

The first part of the race ran out Duval Street, for only a few tenths of a mile before turning around and running back through the start -- and that was interesting. It was only about three mintes after the start that the lead cops came through to move us all to one side to let the leaders through. It got crowded, but it also thinned out pretty quickly. I got to the first mile marker, and my split was 9:24. Holy crap! That's a heck of a time for me. And I couldn't believe how great my legs were feeling. But this was before the bridges... I still had that test ahead of me.

We got to the bottom of the Main Street Bridge, and I was still feeling really strong! Most of the people around me immediately started walking, but I kept on trudging up the bridge. I really only remember three cognitive thoughts:
1) I feel pretty good.
2) I don't like this metal grating... wouldn't it suck if I tripped?
3) Oh. My. God. That other bridge is really tall!

It's true. The Acosta was much taller than the Main Street. And I still had that to look forward to. Not only that, but most of the uphill part of the Acosta was still in Mile 2, so I was not looking like I'd have a really good split. But I still wanted to run. I *really* wanted to run at least the first two miles.

At the bottom of the Main Street (downhill is much nicer), there was a water stop. I had overfilled on water at the beginning, though, so I only took a couple sips and dumped the rest down my back. It was still pretty warm, despite the fact that we had a storm come through town just prior to the race which had cooled things down immensely. But the two bridges are really close together, so after only about three blocks, we were back on another ramp... onto the Acosta.

Ouch. It was long. And it burned. And I kept on going. I went a lot farther than I would have been able to not very long ago. Eventually, I realized that if I kept running all the way to the mile 2 marker, I wasn't going to be able to make it to mile 3. So, I started walking. About 10 seconds later, though, I could see the clock. So I ran again... to the clock. This mile's split: 9:32. That's amazing! With the two bridges, I'm still on pace! However, I was also getting really tired, so I started walking again. Bear in mind that this is still going uphill. I walked for about 30 seconds before I started trudging up the last part of the rise and crested the bridge. And again, the downhill was much easier.

I realized at this point that I just might make my goal time if I could keep it going. I tried to keep my pace relatively even, but I was starting to get that adrenaline rush. You know what I'm talking about. So I started kicking -- possibly a little early, but hey, I was feeling great! My legs weren't completely dead, but my lungs were starting to burn a bit. But I just kept on running.

Eventually, I saw the finish... and the clock that didn't quite read 30:00. And I'm thinking that not only am I going to beat 30:00 in my time, but I'm going to actually beat 30:00 on the clock!

How did I do?

           CLASS  Chip       FINAL
ID#  PLACE PLACE  TIME        TIME      PACE
242   257   36    29:03    29:50    9:36

FYI, that's 36 out of 55 in my age group, and 257 out of 392 for men.

And I could not be happier!