Over achievers

You know those crazy people who run TO the race, then run the race and PR, then some of them even place in the top 3 of their age groups. Yea sorry. I'm part of that group and had Liz and I actually signed up and not just crashed the run (I must remember to write a check to Durham Sport Boosters this week) then Liz probably would have placed.

It was the perfect day for the "Almond Blossom" run. We went out along the midway and through the orchards and everything was blooming beautifully. Everything was wet with dew and fresh from the rains of the last few weeks. We could not have chosen a better day to do this long run out my favorite path to Durham. I'll have to steal pix from Ed, he was smart and had his camera with him.

So we left Vicki's at 7:20 Saturday morning and headed out to Durham. It is just under 7 miles out there so we jogged along campus to hit that 7 mile mark on the dime. So there were 7 of us I think running out there and Ed and Tracey headed back to get the big miles in. Vicki, Ross, Vince and Ross's parents all ran the 5k for real and Liz and I just jumped in for fun, this was my first (and probably only) bandit race. We would have PR'ed at about 25 minutes (had I not veered off course at 3.05miles) and Liz would have come in at 24:50 or so. She definitely would have placed. Vicki came in first in her age group, Ross placed, Vince placed, Sue placed. Our group kind of swept the top spots didn't we?

The run was great. We were doing mostly 9:40's out there, I ran 8:06 too fast for mile 1, 8:19 for mile 2 which is better time for me, and 8:22 for mile 3 even though I tried to speed up I had a side stitch that just would not let up. Liz creeped farther and farther in front of me and Vicki and Vince took off like a shot so I never even saw them once the gun went off.

We did run a little over a mile loop afterwards at a REAL easy pace. I think that helped Sunday to keep us from being sore.

I did see Good Neighbors husband "Coach" out there and he did good for his first run. He came in about 35 minutes but is feeling the pain from not stretching. I used to be that person... the one who didn't stretch. If I want to keep running though I can't make that mistake any more. LOL. I hope he's feeling better today and to see him out on the race field again.


*** I know I should not have crashed the race, I know that the money raised for this run goes to a very worthy cause and since I'm a huge supporter of local public schools and their sports departments (or lack of in this time of school cuts) I will donate directly to their boosters. It was not my plan originaly to run and with no time to sign up before hand, no extra $to pay for the race once I got there since I was running to the race. So I appoligize to anyone who is upset for my rebelious ways***