LungStrong 15k Race Rewind 10.17.09

Woke this morning a little before 5 am and started getting ready for the LungStrong 15k.

Checked the weather and saw the expected temps were to be in the mid 40s with a slight wind. Also there was only a small chance of rain.

It was a short night on sleep as I was at the hospital again last night. There is not much new on that front.

Circling around at the start, I saw Megan and Ben, Dan and Val, Mike, Steve, Paul, Aaron, Jay, and Billy to name just a few.

I met up with a few others for about 2.5 miles of warm up before changing over to my Lunar Racer racing flats.

This was followed with some strides just before the race start.

Shortly after the start Ben and Dan made a break from the pack. Both were clearly setting a tough early pace.

I hooked up with Paul and Kent shortly after the mile. Paul was doing a great job pulling Ken and me along.

We ran together until about 4 miles when I did probably the stupidest thing of the race. I tried to pick up the pace on him and Ken. It worked for about 2 miles but then they came right by me on the uphill section of the course.

Normally, I would have never tried such a move but Mike was maybe 30 yards in front of us at the time and I thought I could jump across the gap. The move totally back fired on me. I never got across the gap and end up running those 2 miles solo.

Talking with Mike afterward, the move would not have worked any way. He was holding something in reserve for the last 5k of the race. He would have killed me on the hills.

By seven miles Ken and Paul has gapped me by about 20 seconds. But by now, I had stabilized the loss and continued chasing them all the way to the finish.

The last few miles seemed to just fly by. I was not feeling particular great but neither was I feeling all that bad.

Within a few minutes of the finish, I had bounced back and was ready for a cool down.

On other news and notes, Steve indicated that he had a good race as he was finishing his final prep before heading to NY in a few weeks. Alejandro was still nursing some injuries but came through with a 55:33.

Megan was rolling with a 55:40. All I can say there is looking ladies running at OBX. She will be hard to catch and for some of the guys like me, we will probably be saying the same thing.

Speaking of OBX, I saw some of my marathon competition today. John Anderson and Steve Ahrens both running OBX were at the starting line and looking strong.

Billy, Jason, and Aaron were racing today but more in tempo mode than race mode. All three are slated to run Marine Corps Marathon next week.

The TrySports team had a good showing with Chris, Kent, Brian, Billy, and Stan making their marks on the race.

Also I need to give another shout out to the Snickers Crew that was handing out the Snickers bars at the race. You guys need to keep coming back. I love your products.

To Jay and Aaron, thanks for getting the CRC Singlets out to everyone. They look super. You guys did a great job designing them.

To the course monitors and police officers, you did a good job today. I had no issues navigating the various turns along the course. My only traffic difficulty was in front of the Harris Teeter where a van assumed that they had the right of way.

To the course distance, my Garmin measured the course in 9.48 miles. I need to track down the certification on the course to double check, but I suspect I ran the extra distance along Jetton road between the 8 mile mark and Conner Rd – both going out and coming back. The same goes for Conner Road where we ran to the left of the cones.

In some ways, I am glad this was the final GP race of '09. It has been a long time since we started in March with the Shamrock 4 miler. Having stayed had 9 months of hard racing and I am just happy to have come through it injury free.

RFYL has to be congratulated for all of their efforts. There is a lot of time and energy spent putting on the GP series and these guys get hit hard every time there is problem. But sometimes, it nice to let them know that we runners appreciate the work they do to give us a place to race on the weekend. It is not something they have to do.

Thanks RFYL.

To the runners competing in the GP series, I am looking forward to seeing everyone at the GP party this year.

Finally to Steve and Mark, I want to send a special thanks to you guys. When this year started, I expected you guys to push me hard and you never let me down. You pushed me to work harder this year than probably any of the past 3 or 4 years. Keep up the hard work. The '10 Shamrock 4 miler will be here before you know it.

Tales from the LungStrong Race.