63rd Place at OBX!

It has been long overdue for an update to ZDOG. Holidays and a bit of work have made life a bit busy.

Well, the OBX Marathon came and went and continued my PR streak. Pretty happy. Ran a 3:25 which was good for 63rd out of 964 overall and 8th of 74 in my age group.

As far as the race, it was awesome. The course was great. People were fun. I am keeping this on my list to do again.

It was also great to be able to stay with my family down there. It had been waaaay too long for a visit to see them.

So, OBX was pretty much it for 2007. My PR streak ended in my next race which was a turkey trot. However, by my watch it was a PR, but a new timing system and a bad start didn't agree. Oh well, I still had fun and was able to run past where someday I will be laid to rest. Good times!

Then on New Year's Eve, I did my annual 5K. The course is a bit tricky, but I ended up running my best time on that course of 20:00 flat. Once again, that new timing system added a few seconds to my time. Oh well. Still a course best for me and placed top ten in my age group.

Time to start gearing up for 2008...

Finally! A Sub 20 min 5K!

My one biggest goal this running year was very simple: to break 20 minutes in the 5k. I had just about given up on it this year and put it on my early 2008 goal list.

Then there we were going pretty much the last VR track workout of the year. During that Susan told me that she thought I should run one as soon as possible and that I could break 20 with no problem. She was a bit surprised I hadn't yet. Vince agreed.

So I found a 5k up on the lake called the Run for Shelter 5k. Looked pretty flat. I emailed Lloyd who had ran the race last year and told me except for a hill around the 1.25 mile mark, it was pretty flat. Perfect!

So there I was ready to go with my new toys: Garman 305 and a new pair of lightweight DS Trainers. And off we went. I tried not to do my regular go out too fast but it was very hard. But I did manage to pace and hold and gradually people started to fade in front and slowly move back. Slowly by mile 1, I had found my pace and hit it at about 6 minutes. A bit a head of pace, but not bad. Up the hill, which wasn't really bad at all, and through the loop at the top. I could still see the leaders and was holding a pretty steady pace.

I hit the mile 2 mark and head the guy reading off the time, "11:58, 11:59....12 minutes." 12 minutes??? I had realized I had bit the wrong button on my Garman and was actually about 40 seconds ahead of pace. And now time for a down hill. Prefect! I managed to catch a couple of people and locked in a final mile trying to figure out where the finish line was. Man did I want a sub 20...c'mon I kept thinking to myself. 19:59 is all I need!

I could see the rest of the course and could still see the leaders. I knew i was close, but because of my screw up with my watch, I had no idea what time I was at. Finally, I could see the end. I dumped everything I had left. Go big or go home!

As I crossed the line, I thought my eyes were wrong. I didn't see the number starting with a 19 like I had expected...it said 18:49! I finally had broke 20 min and PRd by over 1:40! Good for 8th place overall and 2nd in my age group.

Looks like my PR race streak continues! This is race number 5 in a row with a PR. OBX is next. No pressure!

Next up..OBX!