What a perfect race, the weather was good, I had some fast guys to run with, and I had a huge PR!  When I got up this morning I wasn't feeling so great.  I think the chemo upset my stomach a little, but it may also have been nerves from the race.

By the time I got warmed up I was feeling a little better, but still not great, but I usually don't feel great before a race so I wasn't too concerned.  I went through the first mile in 5:39, the lead pack was ahead and at this point I was solo.  But right after the first mile, two guys I know came up on me and we started working together, taking turns leading to break the wind, which was pretty stiff when you ran into it.  We went through 2 in 5:49, still feeling good.  The third mile had was half tail wind and half head wind, but working in the little pack really helped, and we cruised through 3 in 5:42.  Now going through 3 miles @17 minutes in a five mile race is new territory for me, but I was feeling solid.  Our group slowed a bit on the 4th mile, which is weird because most of it had a tail wind, slowest mile at 5:51.  After mile four its every man for himself.  The one guy, John Quinn opened up a small gap on me, and I did the same to Joe Donahue, so we were strung out and coming down the home stretch I didn't have enough to surge and catch John, I think he got me by maybe 5 seconds, but still my last mile was the fastest of the day at 5:32!  So official time was 28:35, 6th place overall, more than a minute faster than last year, and a PR by about 45 seconds.

Then after waiting around and freezing with Hisako and Nugget, I won my age group, successfully defended my title as fastest man in Manasquan, and won a random prize too.  A pretty good take, a Turkey Trot Calculator, A nice glass Turkey Trot mug, and three 5$ gift cards to Acme Sweet!  When you add in the nice long sleeve shirt, I pretty much recouped my entry fee.  With the warm up and cool down I was at 8 for the day.  Keep your eyes out for the Coast Star this week, I should have a quote or two.