Miss One

I missed last week not by accident but just because I couldn't get it together enough to write anything. I did however have something to write about. I ran the Gate River Run last Saturday. I think it was the third time I have run the 15km race through Jacksonville. The website has a feature where you can search previous years results, so after I looked up my official finish this year i had to go back and check on my previous attempts. This year I arrived early and got to the start line moments before the 5K charity run began. I waited behind the barrier and watched those runners take off before we were allowed to move up. The start chute was roped off with the top 200 seeded runners in the front and then a second group before the general entrants. I managed to squeeze into the front couple of rows of the general entrants. When the cannon went off to start i was able to cross the line within 30 seconds which was much better than the couple of minutes that it has taken me the last couple of years. I got through the first mile in 8:35 which I thought was a little slow but a decent beginning. My training had tailed off over the previous two weeks because of sickness. My whole goal was to just get through the run. As I passed the 5K mark at European St Cafe in San Marco, I was somewhere around 25 minutes which is a little slow, but with 10K to go it is understandable. I rounded the corner to run up River Rd where our friends Travis and Diana live. I wasn't sure if they would be out watching at 9am on a Saturday morning. They had set up chairs and were cheering on the runners with their neighbors. I waved as I passed and got an enormous cheer. The resulting surge of adrenaline kept me going for the rest of the race. Soon after that I heard another runner near me ask his friend if they were on pace to break eighty minutes. The positive response made me make sure that I stuck with these guys for the remainder of the race. We passed through San Marco and continued past Bishop Kenny High School. I ran through 10K at about 52 minutes which is pretty fast for me, I think. The best 10k time i remember running was 46 minutes something in the Barwon Banks Fun Run. It was also the only time I managed to beat my Dad in a race (note he had been sick before the race and whatever time he managed to run was probably his worst). My pacers kept my going up to the Hart bridge. As we ran up the bridge I slipped back from the one guy i was still with, the others were behind us. Coming off the bridge I was still trying to catch him but didn't want to blow it all out on the descent. As we rounded the corner to turn toward the stadium I was still holding back for the finish thinking we were going to turn into the stadium again. I saw the big screen and was trying to watch a little to see where that last turn was. Then I realised there was no final turn and the big screen was the finish line. I turned it on and managed to finish in 79 minutes, breaking the 80 that my pacers were worried about. I missed out on the top 10% finisher caps that they were handing out but i was very happy with the time. Of course this means that I will need to put in some training and finish faster next year.