The 4th race in the Grand Prix series and 3rd for me.
3 hard workouts in the previous week with Paul M. leading up to this race which seemed to be a bit much for me.
Parked my car at the library and jogged the mile to the Piper Glen Shopper Center to get my # and chip. Ran back to the car for more warm up and ran into B-Mac with a new do!(rockin'). Warmed up a little with him and then I saw Paul with headphones on! He goes..."Stephen...I'm crankin' Bon Jovi!" Jon Bongiovi is from Sayerville (NJ) and I'm from Florham Park (NJ) so we got the Jersey connection and Paul is grew up about a mile from Motspur Park west of London (how cool is that?).
Make my way to the start and we got: Issacs, Compton, Shue, Kinley, C'Ford, and what really stood out for me was how strong the women's field looked (including but not limited to: Rogers, CaitCris, John, Walther and Nedlo...
Gun goes off (actually it was a guy from the bread company with the apron on who does the standard routine of "r, s, go!"...I had heard that the first mile was tough so I took it very conservative (maybe too as I hit 5:46), and then it hit me that I needed to start getting after it and press the pace.
I look over on the far side of the road and there is Megan Hovis and how can I resist not giving her a "High Five?" back on the gas as I move up from 45th to 9th place. After I passed Chad C., we quasi decide to work with each other(I think). Hit the 2nd mile in 5:29 (11:15). Made sure that I acknowledged every runner that I saw. Chad had a little more than me at the end. Nice race for him.
10th overall in 17:31...
Top 10 men: Kinley, Compton, Mainwaring, MacMahon, Harris, Issacs, Arreola, Crockford, Poindexter, Spada
Top 5 women: Nedlo, Chrisman, Rogers, Crockford, John
Ran back to the car and went home, had oatmeal and took my son back to the finish (we parked in the shopping center because I was dressed like a civilian and I did wonder if I was going to get a ticket). My son and I got muffins at Great Harvest (gotta support the sponsors) and then went to the awards. Mainwaring wondered what the heck I was doing there...
Got to talk to some of the usual suspects. John Compton gave me his whole race in detail and said he gave JoKin a battle for 2 miles and then tried to surge up a hill yet it was actually Jo that did the surgin'...I received a recap from Billy as well...
See you at the Tiger...
Nice race. I was standing on the last downhill watching when you went by me.
ReplyDeleteI heard you on my left and appreciated the fact that you came out to watch...thanks Paul!
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