Notes
Temps around 90 heat index. Nice breeze blowing until about 10 min before the race started then pretty much died. Muggy but not as bad as it has been the past 3.5 weeks. Interesting crowd of competitors. RD states he has right at 200. Good mix of high school cross country and track guys. Know some of them; others don't but they all look young. None of the Central guys are here.
Have a plan for this race and looking to try to outsmart the HS studs for a good finish by better strategy/pacing and tangents.
One mile split of 5:50. Running in 2nd place. Bided my time in 6th place until the turn around on Oak street then passed 4 boys on the uphill portion of the course. Cody G. passes me on the downhill just prior to turning L on Union Street. I let him go as pretty confident he will come back to me soon. I drop him on the first hill into the park and set my sights on the leader, who is about 10 m ahead of me. Patience is the key as we work our way through the park toward the 2 mile mark.
Two mile split of 6:01 with elapsed time of 11:51. Running right behind the leader at this point and go by him as we start up the hill past the park lake. Feeling good and start to apply the pressure and hope to create a gap.
Three mile split of 5:53 with elapsed time of 17:44. First place at this point and hauling as* toward the finish.
Final .06 mile split of :18 sec for 4:45 ave speed. Running toward the finish with people on both sides of the course. Felt great aerobic wise and finally executed a finishing kick that wasn't weak. Watching the clock from 17:48 point on and attempting to break 18 min with the kick. Close but no cigar (not that I would smoke it anyway).
18:02.
Finish 1st overall and had the best final 400 meter finish so far this season. Tough hill running the key to the win tonight. Get a nice silver dollar and OA award and get to pose with the hardware with Bram and Coach Schiwitz. Great night and unbelievable 4 days with 2 races. Bram places 7th overall and first in 45-49 age group in a deep division. Travis wins his age group. Chalk one up for the old men tonight. Had a great time. Toni and I celebrated with some lasagna and cheese sticks at the Pizza joint prior to heading home.