I'm Back, Baby !!

Yes, George Costanza had it right. Since my last post the stamina in the old legs has not gone away, so I decided to enter a competitive race. The arch rival school of my E-City school holds Cross Country races (3.1 miles) in W-Park during the summer (five in all) to benefit their X-C team. Tonight was the 4th in the series. Most of the runners are high school kids who are getting ready for the upcoming season, but a few old guys run too. The first few races of the series attracted about 50 per race. So it would be small compared to other road races. And it is run on the official X-C course with the exception of the last 4/10 of a mile or so to avoid crossing a road.

So I decided to give it a try and see what I had at my current age. It was a beautiful night: mid 70s, windy, a little humid, and a threat of a thunderstorm. At 6:45 PM I toed the line and waited for the start. I will admit I was a bit nervous having no idea what to expect. It had been 14 years since my last race and only two days since a colonoscopy. But I'm not getting any younger so I said "what the heck".

I came to the race with a goal of an 8:30 pace but I never factored in the condition of the course which is mostly run on grass, uneven and high at times. I definitely started out too fast. Assuming that the mile markers were positioned correctly, I did the first mile in 8:13. Even though I started out what I thought was too fast a pace, a lot of runners passed me in that first mile. At the half-mile I got my breathing leveled out and then just tried to keep a nice even pace.

At the 2, I was at 16:42 (8:21). For the last mile of the race I passed two younger runners and no one passed me which gave me some satisfaction. But even though I felt like I was running at a decent pace (at least faster than my normal runs everyday), I finished at 27:06. That's a pace of 8:44 which was higher than my goal. And the last 1.1 mile was run in 10:24 or a 9:45 pace which I find hard to believe.

But all in all I was very happy with the results of the night.

And as for the coaching, a second position appeared on the web but like the previous one, the location is a bit too far. So it still looks like softball practice this fall rather than X-C.