Hail my running brothers and sisters! They say that those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it. Clearly this wise person was thinking of me when they said it. Despite my belief that I'm the disciple of Pre, I cannot gut out a race at the start and expect to finish it strong. Case in point, this year's Rudolph Red-Nose Run 5k. I ran it in 23:24, 7:33/mile. My splits worked out to 6:21, 7:47, 8:18 and 0:57 (7:00/mile equivalent). My strategy was to start out strong, then coast and surge, coast and surge to the finish. What actually happened was, I started out strong, and then basically did everything I could to hold it together to the finish. By mile 2, my guts were on fire, my lungs and throat were raw, and I was positive that I was going to vomit before I saw the end of mile 2. Suprisingly, I did make it to the end without losing my guts and curling up on the ground with the remains of my lunch. Still I was relatively happy. I ran an expected time around 7:30/mile, nearly 2 minutes off my time last year. Also I learned that I can probably run a 6:10-6:15 mile, maybe even a 6:00 mile in the right conditions. Plus, I know that I did not leave anything in the tank at the end of the race. Clearly I should have paced myself better to achieve negative splits, but there is something romantic about running a race hard. Next time, I just need to be smart too! That is very hard for me to do if you're me according to my wife. Next year I'll have to aim for 6:50 splits, and maybe then my wife won't remind me that I'm a dumbass! Run hard and have fun kids!
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