Saturday, October 13, 2012

Phillippi Shores 7K - 10-13-2012 - Details

Untitled by addickens at Garmin Connect - Details

This morning was the Phillippi Shores 7K. You may recall that I ran this race last year with Speedster Chuck and was surprised to finish 5th in my age group. I kind of thought that I might be able to go a little faster this year and knock 13 seconds off my time to finish in less than 40 minutes but was intent on using good form and not injuring myself.

BTW, Phillippi Shores is an elementary school and the reason for 7 kilometers is to represent the 7 continents of the world. At least that is what I heard someone say.  Anyhow, as you might guess, a race sponsored by an elementary school has kids everywhere. The little buggers are a hazard at a running event, weaving in and out of traffic, speeding up, stopping for no apparent reason. Even worse than that is their parents get a little testy when you push the little ones out of the way.

I did have my metronome with me so I could check in on my cadence from time to time. A little past one mile I knew I was doing pretty well but just tried to relax and keep my form good. Mile #2 was at about 8:22 MPM which is pretty quick for me but again I just relaxed, tried to keep my form good and kept on going. By the time I got to 4 miles I was pretty sure I would break 40 minutes but I really wasn't watching the time. Heading to the finish I was careful not to lengthen my stride and just hold my pace. I crossed the finish line at 37:28 nearly 3 minutes quicker than last year.

At this point I felt like I should wait around for the awards to see if my quicker time moved me up in the rankings. I grabbed a plate of fruit and a bottle of water and staked out a seat at one of the picnic tables. There were kids everywhere, crawling on everything, like ants on an ant hill. Finally, the male age group of 55 to 59 was called and I was again 5th place. I guess the old guys got quicker in the past year.


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