This morning I won my second ever race!  The first was the BA to Celtic Cottage "half marathon" for which I got no award, not even a handshake, and today was almost as bad.  I've definitely been spoiled by the Jersey Shore Running Club.

The race was a 10 K, two loops almost entirely on dirt trails in a nature center about a half hour away.  There were a few stretches of the course on boardwalk over some swampy areas, and there were some hills too; not a PR course (I think it might have been long anyway.)

I went out relaxed, hanging in 3rd place for maybe the first mile or so, there were no mile markers.   After maybe 10 minutes I moved up to 2nd, just off the leader's should and sat for a few minutes.  By roughly two miles I was in the lead with the second place guy hanging right on my tail.  I felt like I was cruising and when we went through 5K @ 20ish, I started to push.  I wanted to drop that guy.  By about five minutes into the second loop I was alone with maybe a 10 second lead.  I could just barely hear the guy behind me.  So I started to push harder opening up enough of a gap that I couldn't see who was behind me anymore.  I was lapping a lot of people and with about a mile or so to go I just poured it all out and finished in 39:10, almost 90 seconds off my PR at Brielle last year; that's why I think it was long, I was in shape to get close to 37 today, and despite the hills I don't think I was running 6:18 pace (that's 20 seconds/mile slower than what I had in mind for today?)  But hey, a win is a win, even though there was no finish line tape to break. 

The best part though came after waiting around for the awards.  It turns out that this race only has age group awards, so me, and the person who won the 5K got the same crappy medal that every other person who won their age group.  I hate to complain, but come on, they didn't even mention that we won our respective races, just that I was first in the 30 - 39 age group, but I guess thats what you get for 15$.

Now this week I'll rest up  bit and pick a new goal race, maybe something in December.  For the rest of today, I'm just going to sit my butt on the couch and watch the Olympics.

Total for the week: 22
         for the  year: 1401

 

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