3.1+ miles @ 7.5 min/mi

Barry Smith of JFK 50 miler "Team Lanterne Rouge" kindly gives me a ride to the MCRRC "New Year's Resolution" 5k race this morning. We arrive to the usual madhouse in the start/finish gymnasium, but I soon get registered. Thanks to wonderful friend Christina Caravoulias who's behind the desk I snag bib #333 again this year—the Half Beast is back! (Trail grrrl Caren Jew gets #444, so she's one-sixth more beastly than I.) CM Manlandro, Emaad Burki, Wayne Carson, et al. chat until it's time to venture out. I'm wearing only shorts and short-sleeved shirt, plus hat and gloves, which compared to 95% of the other runners is skimpy in today's 30°F weather with strong gusty winds. But my engine runs hot, and soon I doff the hat. At 10am we start: Caren & I cross the line ~11 seconds after the "gun". Mile one is a brisk 7:28, at the end of which I catch up with CM who's rolling along strongly. I push through a second mile in 7:21, at the end of which I catch Wayne.

"You sandbagger!" I gasp to The Master, as he slows slightly to let me pass. There's no mile 3 marker, but the final 1.1 mile segment flows by in 8:13, for a total official time of a hair under 23:15, doubtless a new personal best for me. Wayne zips in only a couple of seconds later, still sandbagging as he claims that he tried but failed to catch me. (Yeah, sure!) CM is under 25 minutes, a fabulous new PR for her, and then comes Emaad. Caren glides in at just hair over 30 minutes (but under 30 allowing for "gun"-"chip" offset) followed by Christina, recovering nicely from a workout injury.

^z - 2009-01-04