Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Labor Day Weekend

I had a good 35 mile bike ride on Sunday with Michele, Tracy & Gary, Leslie, and Amy. Amy just got a brand new Trek 1600 WSD - I am so jealous! It was nice to get out and ride with a group of people in nice weather. And let me tell you, we have certainly had nice weather lately.

It doesn't get any better than the weather was Monday morning, Labor Day. Michele, Leslie and I met at 5:10 and headed to Franklin for The Franklin Classic 10k (Leslie actually ran both). We all got registered, and Michele and I walked around and watched the 5k runners come in. I was amazed at some of the younger kids running sub-20 min 5ks...wow! I saw my friend Ross and his wife, Jenny. Ross and I talked for a few minutes about what kind of time we wanted, and he introduced me to one of his friends who was running his first 10k. This was actually my first 10k race also, if you don't count the 10k during an Oly Tri. But we finally got lined up and the gun went off. Michele and I were together, and we took it easy during the beginning. My first mile was 8:16. During this mile, we saw David!! And this time it really was him (you'll have to read Michele's report to understand this-hehe)! We chatted with David for a while, and then I pulled out a little and tried to bump up the pace some. I saw Ross out in front of me several yards and tried to keep him in sight. He would get quite a ways in front of me, then I'd get back close to him. This went on pretty much the entire distance, and I don't think he had a clue that I was back there. I felt good pretty much the entire way...I got into a groove where I knew I couldn't go much faster, but it was a pace that I felt I could keep for the distance. Around the end of mile 5, I finally caught up with Ross. He informed me of a slight incline on the last mile, which was much appreciated. I pulled out away from him for a while, then made the turn into the final stretch. I could see the finish line way ahead, and was giving all I had left. It seemed like I would never get there!! About 20 yards from the finish, I saw a streak of orange fly by me....It was Ross, who had an awesome kick at the end!!! I crossed the finish line in 50:14. A PR, ofcourse, since I don't have one for this distance, but it was exactly where I wanted to be. I have hoped for a while now that I could run a 10k somewhere close to 50 minutes. Now I know where the bar is for the future. We didn't hang around too long afterwards...we grabbed some food, chatted with friends and headed back to the small town.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was a perfect day for running! Congrats on the great time! Glad we got to finally meet up.

Michele said...

Awesome job on your "first" 10K. Did you see you got 4th in your age group?!?!!?
Congrats!

Papa Louie said...

Congratulations on your first 10K! Way to run tough the last few miles.

Rae said...

Awesome job on the 10K! Last weekend was perfect for running.

Janet Edwards said...

Nice job..very respectable time for your first 10K!!