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Jill and I ran the NK5K yesterday.
The night before the race Jill said she had to go to Fat Belly's Pub for
some Half Penny Ale and some Buffaque chicken wings. Nancy and I had just
finished eating (salmon encrusted with panko and crushed pecan plus a salad,
some garlic bread, and the last of some ratatouille I had made a couple
of days ago using zuchinni and eggplant from our garden) but I said I would
come along to keep her company -- besides, I can't resist Half Penny Ale.
Jill says that she has gone to Fat Belly's for Half Penny and Buffaque
wings the night before every race this summer, including the Blessing of
the Fleet 10-miler and that it is a good omen. I dunno about good omen,
but that has become my favorite beer and their Buffaque wings are really
tasty.
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She got a 12-count order of wings -- and I helped by eating one of them.
I guess the Half Penny and wings worked because she had a good run on Saturday.
She was 90th overall (compared with 83rd two years ago -- but there was
a larger field this year -- which also made things a bit slower getting
to the starting line. I was also slower than I was two years ago and than
last year as well, although only by a few seconds. (Jill was in Canada
at this time last year.) I know exactly where I went wrong this year. I
was at a reasonable (slow) pace through the first mile, but I picked it
up during the second mile -- too much -- so that on the third mile I was
too tired to keep up my pace -- until, of course, my running coach ran
along side of me during the last three hundred feet or so before we turned
into the high school driveway where the finish line was -- barking instructions
to pick up my feet, pump my arms, move it, move it. She said later that
she wondered what the other runners must have thought.
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| Our traditional post-race picture. |
This race is still timed the old fashioned way -- from the time of the
start until you cross the finish line (compared with the newer technique
using RFID chips where your time is from when you personally cross the
start line at the beginning until you personally cross the finish line
at end). There was a slightly larger crowd this year and it took me a bit
longer to cross the start line -- if I compare what my watch showed this
year vs. what it showed last year, I was seven seconds faster... in other
words, still not very impressive. ** sigh **
Actually, I know exactly what my problem is: lack of stamina. This summer
I have run miles in the low ten minute range, have even run under ten minutes.
But that is for one mile. I've even run quarter-miles in under two minutes.
What I can't do is run three point one miles at a pace in the ten minutes
per mile range. And I know what the cure is -- get in a three to five mile
run every second day -- and get in a good alternative workout on the alternate
days. I used to sometimes have a similar problem back in my youth (i.e.,
when I was in my mid to late 40s) -- I would run the first two miles of
a 5k at a 6:45/mile pace and then end up slogging through the third mile
at an 8 minute pace. The answer was more consistent running at longer distances.
The CVS 5k is coming up one week from today. Jeremy is going to run it
with us.
After coming home from the NK5K run, Jill went on line and signed up for
a half marathon in two weeks. She can do ten miles so she shouldn't have
much trouble covering an extra three. (Come to think of it, the t-shirt
she wore yesterday was from the Smuttynose Half Marathon she ran two years
ago.)
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| Post-race muchies included pizza. |
Yes -- I am testing using HTML Comment Box -- I can't seem to get the export-import
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trying to navigate their site is making me crazy. So... HTML Comment Box.should
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