It was a beautiful morning for the race, temperature in the mid-50s and the sun shining. This is quickly becoming my favorite race. At 7:10 the had the Canadian parachute display team jump followed by the Army jump team. Then just before the start came the helicopter fly over, low enough to get everyone's blood pumping.
I was fortunate enough to be close enough to the start line to be able to get running with minimal difficulty and quickly found myself clipping along at a comfortable pace. That is until I reached the mile one marker. I crossed the first mile in 7:15 and realized this was about 15 seconds faster than I had planned for. I decided I felt fine and thought I'd see if I could sustain this pace for the race, it was a gamble.
As I pressed on I was drawing a lot of my energy and inspiration from the large contingent of amputee runners in the race. Once we hit the out and back on Independence Avenue time seemed to fly by as I watched the elite runners coming towards us and then after I'd made the turn watched to throng of runners moving up the street.
At mile 8 I realized that unless I fell or pulled a muscle I would finish with a PR and decided that I'd pick up the pace at mile 9 and push for the finish. At mile 9 there was nothing I could do, I had pushed the race as hard as I could. I felt strong on the last mile but also felt that if I pushed any harder I would leave my breakfast on the course!
I crossed the finish in 1:12:48, a 7:17 pace, my best time for this distance by 23 seconds a mile!
Our church team would once again have taken first place in the church division (if they had one, as we were the only church team in the race!) but we had to settle for a very impressive 7th place finish in the open mixed division. Well done team!
Did I mention this is my last race before I enter the "Masters" age group!
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