4 for the Holiday

Today's Holiday 4 Miler was my last race of 2008, and it was a blast. Cowboy Hazel suggested that I run the Jingle Bell 5K tomorrow, but I think I'm raced out for the weekend.  Next weekend, I'll be on the road for the holidays, not to return until after the New Year. 

I had originally planned to go easy in this race, but as usual, the excitement of the day got to me, and I ended up running hard. I jogged over to the start with TH, and met up with the rest of his clan. The boys were both racing as well, and mom was spectating and holding down the fort. 

We took of our outer layers and headed for the start, probably a bit too early, as we froze our butts off in the corrals waiting for the start. In the corral, I saw SJ and a couple of other Flyers. I also recognized a guy whose blog, rundangerously, I've enjoyed reading. I'd never met him, so I tapped him on the shoulder and let him know that I liked his blog. He runs at a similar pace to me, so I expect to see more of him in the future.

I ended up a little closer to the starting line than usual, and got a thrill as I could see the lead truck for most of the first mile of the race. Chasing the truck, I ran hard, and ended up with a 6:35 -- on PR pace. Honestly, I was a little disappointed in that time, as I felt like I was really pushing it. On second thought, I realized that mile one is quite hilly, and I would probably wail on mile two, which was mostly downhill. I was disappointed again, when I hit mile 2 with a 6:43. With Cat hill still ahead, it wasn't looking good for a PR. 

Around that time ST passed me. I wasn't sure it was her from behind, since she was wearing a hood and no Flyer gear, but I caught her again on Cat hill and was able to see her face. ST was just the person I needed to see right then -- a fast runner to try to beat, rather than a long hill to climb. We ran most of the rest of the race together, pushing each other hard. There was also another Flyer there, who I didn't know. 

Mile three came in at 6:42. Very odd. I ran the Cat hill mile at the same pace as the down hill mile before it. A quick calculation told me I needed a 6:20 to hit my PR time. That was a stretch, but not completely out of the question. The last mile was downhill, and it was, well, the last mile. I kept pushing eventually outpacing ST toward the end, and momentarily caught up with the other Flyer, although he out kicked me in the end. We shook hands afterward - he's KM -- always good to know another Flyer.

I was trying so hard at the end, that I didn't get right to my watch at the finish, so I wasn't sure of exactly what my time was, but it did appear that I had PRed. What a way to end the season. 

After the race, I caught up with a number of Flyers, including TH, SJ, ST, Captain GW and the FlyGirl, who had capped a great season with yet another PR. 

When I got home and checked the official results, I found that I had PRed by THREE SECONDS. Hey, a PR is a PR.  I was 17th of 206 men in my age group and 183 of 4878 overall. 

Overall Place	Gender Place	Age Place	Finish Time	Pace/ Mile	AG Time	AG Gender Place	AG %
183	170	17	26:19	6:34	23:34	90	71.4 %

That's good enough for me -- for 2008 anyway. 

Happy Holidays!