Double Creek 5K
John and I met up today to run the Double Creek 5K. What a great time.
The course was tough. Lots of hills. My first goal was to break 36 Minutes, which I did at 33:58. However my hope for 30 minutes, died a horrible death on the hot exposed country road in the last mile. We took off at around 9:45 this morning. It was pretty hot and there was very little shade along the 3.1 mile out and back course. John’s wife Jaime, had walked up the road a little before the start and came back and proclaimed the course “hilly”. She wasn’t kidding.
John and I kept pace together for about 100 yards and then he pulled ahead to run his own race. I figured I wouldn’t see him until the finish. However after another 100 yards, with him about 10 seconds ahead of me, I decided to let him pull me along and hoped for a 10 minute 1st mile. I thought I might be in trouble at the mile marker when they announced I had done it in 9:41. But I was feeling pretty good and decided to keep going. I let John drag me to the turn around. Still about 10-15 seconds behind him as we rounded the corner, I grabbed some water from a little guy, couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 years old.
I hit the 2nd mile marker at 21:09…I had managed to blow the 20 seconds I had from the first mile…and was starting to feel pretty crappy. The sun and the hills, along with my initial pace were wearing on me. A couple times in that last mile I had to fight to not walk. After what seemed like an eternity, I descended into a small valley between hills and some much needed shade. I prepared for the death slog up the hill. However, after only running for a little bit up that hill, I realized it was the last one…I was only hundreds of yards from the finish. I pushed it up a notch and was probably at about an 11 minute mile pace for 2 to 300 hundred yards.
The last 100, I could see out ahead of me some dude on a unicycle that had passed me a little while back. There wasn’t a chance in hell that dude was going to beat me. I started my kick and flew past him and the finish line just under the 34 minute mark. Tired, hot and pretty happy I never gave up, even if I didn’t do what I had really wanted, which was to hit 30 minutes, John, Jaime and I grabbed some shade and watched the other people come in.
According to the board I finished in 98th place…and about 17 minutes after the first person. As far as I am concerned there was no shame in that time, I really thought it was a tough course. I need to do some hill work I believe.
