Another Race, Another Medal!

After last week's triumph, I thought I would try my luck in another 5K race. This one was the Firemen's Memorial 5K in New Bremen, Ohio, a course described as including a shaded run along the Miami-Erie Canal. It was a fairly simple course: after the start (which was about 4 blocks away from the registration area), we headed south through the neighborhood (no turns, which made things easy), turned at the YMCA, headed through their parking lot, and then started the trail run. I really enjoyed the trail. It headed through a tunnel under State Route 66 (a neat bonus, imho), then over a bridge, onto the Miami-Erie Canal Towpath, a flat, scenic trail through the woods.

It was a great day for a run - cool and not nearly as humid as it has been. It rained in the night, and it was overcast as we warmed up, but by race time, the sun was out.

I went out a little faster than last week (oops) at around 6:20, but I felt a lot better at the mile mark than I did last week. My second mile was a bit slower (surprise, surprise). I think the guy said 13:20, which would have meant I had run a 7 minute second mile. My final time was 21:25, meaning I had to average 6:45/mile. I know I was running hard the final mile, because my friend Mike (the one person I knew in the race) was out in front of me, and I wanted to catch him.

As we came down the final stretch, I heard someone gaining on me, and I decided I wasn't going to let him catch me. Instead we were going to work hard to catch Mike. By the time we crossed the bridge over the canal, we were sprinting. If only the path hadn't been gravel there, Mike would never have known we were on his tail, but he heard our feet crunching the gravel, and he started sprinting. It was all I could do not to puke at this point. We finished all three together, but I think Mike edged us by a nose.

As it turned out, my time was almost 40 seconds faster than last week's, and, once again, I won the 30-34 age group (actually I was third, but the first and second placers were also the overall first and second placers, and they don't also give the overall winners the age group hardware).

And, to top it off, I won a $5 gift certificate to a Mexican restaurant in the door prize drawing (Mike won a watch).