Tie goes to the Runner

After missing my sub-20 goal last week by 7 seconds (officially), I figured I would take another crack at it this week since there was a cheap, small, local race on a fast course. It was at Dockweiler Beach, near LAX, site of my PR 5K from last year. Sadly, the race was so small that they moved the course down on the beach access road, and took out the nice little downhill. So it would be dead flat instead of net down. No biggie.

However, my phlegmmy lungs and sinuses were still not cleared out, so I was not feeling too great. I hadn't run since Tuesday, but my legs were beat up all week after the 5K and the 12 miler the next day. Bottom line, I wasn't feeling too optimistic. So I planned to just go out at the same pace and see if I could just hang on better this time.

The race was called Dash 4 Dads and benefited prostate cancer research. Thankfully, there were no prostate exams at the expo. But it was a Father's day theme, and they had a table full of awful ties that you could wear. To honor your Dad. Or something. Whatever. My wife loves a good prop, so we found this little number to match my shirt.

Channeling S.J. Gumby.

So I ran with it. What the heck.

The course was all on one road. Out and back and out and back. Two U-turns around a cone.
I started out around 6:00 pace, but got myself slowed down quicker this time and got down close to 6:30 pretty fast. I was comfortably cruising. First mile 6:29. Same as last week.

I tried to stay comfortable, but I was moving up, and starting to work hard. The tie flapped around and hit my arms a lot, but wasn't a big deal. And when else would I get a shot like this?

See, my feet do touch the ground once in a while.

Toward the end of mile 2 the pace started to fade. I was trying to hold a little for mile 3 and hoped to negative split. Mile 2 was 6:35.

I knew I needed a big surge like a 6:20 in mile 3, but I didn't have it in me. I was working hard just to maintain. Granted, my motivation was lower, and I didn't quite reach the depths of suffering that I did last week. Most of mile 3 I knew I was not going to make sub-20, so that made it hard to keep pushing quite so hard. Still I managed a 6:37, and .13 at 6:23 pace and finished with a 20:31.

The first woman passed me at 2.7. Other than that I was passing people the whole last 2.5 miles. Finished 11th overall - good for 2nd in my age group. More importantly, I was the first place tie-wearing runner. Sadly, that wasn't a category. Except in my head. The medals were cheap plastic bow ties, but it still feels good to go up and get acknowledged.

Afterward, there was a raffle, including an iPad. But they weren't drawing tickets from a hat, or numbers from a list. Best I can tell, the announcer was scanning the crowd for bib numbers and then just picking a winner. Bogus!

Oh well, they had hats for pics so we got a little silly.


Got to chat with some local runner friends. So it was a very pleasant morning of racing.
Now I am looking at the beautiful shots of San Francisco on TV for the US Open coverage and I'm happy to say that we will be driving up there Friday for the Double Dipsea to meet Loopsters and challenge my endurance levels.