It was a beautiful morning in Stillwater, calm winds and blue sky, high end yachts filled the water, it was a perfect day for a race.
I had no idea what the topography of the course was going to be like so when we boarded the bus to start I paid careful attention to the route we took... we went uphill and then uphill some more! This was going to be a downhill race, I hoped my quads wouldn't snap before the end.
There was no great fanfare at the start, in fact I only knew the race had started because people started streaming over the start line, so I followed. For a few seconds I thought about running a comfortable pace but then decided to just go and run it. But for one training run a week before the race I hadn't gone ten miles since the National Marathon in March, so I was interested to see what I could do. My goal was to run a 7:40 pace, as I'll need to maintain this pace over 26.2 to qualify for Boston.
I did it, 7:40 pace 1:16:36 finish time.
The only question I had was, is this a PR? I ran a 7:40 pace in the Army Ten Miler last October so I knew I had ten seconds of wiggle room... It was a PR by 6 seconds!
Jenny also ran a great race but that's her story to tell, first born was a great cheer leader, second born ran a great kids mile and the little one made it a full 1/2 K in the toddlers race!
A great day shared with family and great friends, Brian and Jan. 
Nice job, Neil! It was great seeing you guys and of course running together. Have a safe trip back and good luck to you and Jenny as you trin for your fall races!
Posted by: brian and jan | July 30, 2008 at 03:51 PM