2014-05-26 - MCRRC Memorial Day Race

~3.9 miles @ ~7.9 min/mi

"Happy Birthday!" I shout at John Way as he blasts past on the out-and-back course of today's MCRRC Memorial Day race, a short 4 miler. The downhill start makes for a fast first split but a correspondingly tough finish; Garmin estimates 7:31 + 7:45 + 7:46 + 8:25 pace on the final 0.9 mile fraction, overall about 2% more conservative than RunKeeper. Comrade Barry Smith is a volunteer course marshall after his marathon yesterday, and gives me a ride to/from the event — many thanks, Sir! After the run, Comrade Christina Caravoulias diagnoses my achy left-side ribs as strained intercostal muscles, from this unfortunate dumbbell's foolish attempt to lift a 25 pound dumbbell on Thursday. The official results put me at 30:36, 67th of 277 runners, behind 52 men & 14 women (the 15-year-old Rosas sisters pass me on the final hill, curse them!), 3rd of 15 males in the age 60-64 bracket. Past results:     34:11 - 2002     45:51 - 2006     41:36 - 2007     44:27 - 2008     46:15 - 2009     31:04 - 2010     32:07 - 2012 ... so apparently this year is a PB — yay!

(photos by Connie Corbett) - ^z - 2014-06-21