Well, this was unexpected.
Racing is a funny thing because where you finish has much more to do with who shows up than with how you actually race that day. On Saturday nobody truly fast participated. Hence, I won.
Saturday's race was the ESPN Diabetes 5K, a fund raiser for (obviously) diabetes research and support. I'm always glad to support a good cause while running. Just before the start of the race I looked around and didn't see anyone I recognized from previous races as being particularly fast. Soon after the starting gun went off I found myself in second place. At around the half mile mark I pulled alongside the runner in first place and asked, "Where are all the fast runners?" He replied that they must not have heard about the race.
At the one mile marker I was alone in first place. That's when I decided to go for the win. I knew that the guy I had passed was younger than I was; I didn't want him to out sprint me at the end. Therefore, I tried to push the pace as much as I could for the entire race. It was uncomfortable and somewhat painful. However, in the end I won by about 45 seconds. Sweet.
My finishing time was 18:51, but several of us runners believe the course was short by a tenth of a mile or two. We all had significantly faster times than we were expecting. One other interesting note: we old guys crushed the younger ones. The top six male finishers were all over thirty years of age. We put those youngsters in their place!
To see the race results click here.
I do not expect to win any more races. However, I have to admit that this was a lot of fun.
(FYI - I added a specific Running page to the blog. You can find it on the pages bar above between the Links and Why I Resigned pages.)
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