saturday 1/23 - winter series II

Waffled on running the 2nd installment of the Pikes Peak Road Runners Winter Series all week. I'm just not that into running a race that short right now. I'd rather just run slow and get miles in. I had a change of heart last night and I headed down there this morning with the wife in tow. I grabbed a bib and headed out to do 1 mile of warm-up jogging.

As I ran back into the parking lot, my watch showed close to 10am but there were plenty of people milling around in the lot with race bibs on. I headed down towards the staging area and as I was about 200 yds out, I see a crowd of people running out onto the course. I make my way to the start line and ask somebody if that was the 4 mi race that just left. She said it was, so I took off in chase. I started my watch as I crossed the line to get my true time knowing I was already well over a minute, maybe even two, behind the gun.

I felt OK for the first mile and then settled in for the second mile. I spent most of the first half of the race picking people off until I finally reached people who were matching my pace. At the turn-around, I grabbed a cup of water, took a couple sips, and headed back. I felt like I really fell of the pace in the third mile but it was actually faster than mile 2. It didn't take long to see the final mile marker and I found another gear for the last mile. I picked off a few more people coming into the home stretch and put in a nice kick for the final 150 yds. I saw the clock moving to 41:00 as I crossed and hit my watch. Stopped it in 39:38. I guess I'll be on time for the next one.

Garmin data for the race