Dragons

So I ended up racing the 88-Crime race on Sunday. I hadn't planned on it but it was determined that perhaps this would be an early indicator of how I am hanging (since my next race won't be until late April). I still wasn't super stoked about racing, but I'm in no position to argue.

So Saturday morning I headed on up to Oro Valley. The day was off to a wonderful start when I saw Greg and our conversation went something to the effect of, "What did you run last year?" "About 27:30" "You ran 27:30 on a short course."

And it went downhill from there. In what was, apparently, a slow course (quite a few sharp turns and some constant elevation changes), I was aiming to hit 29 to 30 minutes. As has been my luck this season, I was the only person within 30 seconds of me, either way, shooting for my time, so it wasn't long before my race consisted of only myself and some kid (prolly a teenager) who I could not shake nor would take over the pace.

At exactly 15 minutes I just hear, "Ah shit," and the kid basically pulls up and was gone. Don't get me wrong, I hated his Ligori weazing in my ear and his refusal to do any work -- but he did keep me focused on working hard. After I lost him, I must have drifted and ended up coming in 10th in 30:33. I'm not especially pleased with this but I did promise to be patient here so I'm just going to go ahead and get back on the training schedule this week.

After the race, I congratulated Greg on his win (a $100 value) and jogged a cooldown with Mike (who pulled second) and Shane from the Group Run while he told me about how much the Tech Trek 10k sucked this year. Shane also told me that I appear to run on my toes on my left foot. I don't know if that means I need to do something with my left foot or if I'm just supposed to get up on my right toes too. Regardless, I'm just going to assume that my life is like Zelda and, therefore, I should just hold on to his knowledge as I might find it useful in the future.

Also, I am going to get some new racing flats this week as I am tired of running in old shit. Perhaps I should start a LetsRun thread about this so I can be sure to get the 'proper' 5 to 10k shoe.

Anyways, I am really sore in the calves today and tomorrow will be Edition I of some Fartlek workout. I'll probably go knock it out over at Reid Park in the morning after my class.

First Man to Run Around the World. Suck it Karno, Ostriches -- Mike's Race Recap -- Results (~95 Runners Beat Percentage)