Man, my third weekend in a row of racing, shortly after coming back from an injury. Not the smartest, but at least I played the first race smart and was hoping to not overdue this one. I really didn't have a plan here. I was leaning towards the usual "5k at 10k effort." If you're in shape, that's not strenuous enough for a good workout but it would serve its purpose for where I currently am.
I got to this race later than I wanted and had some trouble parking, so I had to cut my warm-up in half. It was cold and really windy and I didn't know much about the course. However, Justus David showed up. I've never met Justus but he's a Kenyan and sub 29 10k guy and looking at him, I feel like I should join Jenny Craig. He won the Middle Half a couple of weeks back, beating Daniel Kirwa (I've never beaten him), so I knew the race would be for second. It also meant I would lose to a Tennessee runner for the first time in nearly two years (Stewart Ellington gave me my last whooping at the 2011 Tom King). With Justus there, I was just going to be a sitting duck. Some of you are thinking "you never know, you could win" but yeah, I do know.
The race started down a curvy, steep downhill. I took the lead a couple of hundred meters in and Justus pulled up after a couple of minutes. We ran side-by-side and zig-zagged through a lot of parking lots, which really made you lose your rhythm. I didn't see a mile marker but we came through two miles in 10:24.
I was feeling really flat and was waiting for him to leave me. With about a half mile to go, he took off and I kept my rhythm. The ending went up the same steep hill you ran down at the beginning and I took my top getting to the top, with a finishing time of 16:14. The effort wasn't that hard, I just wasn't very motivated and had a hard time turning my legs over. It was also frustrating getting beaten so easily by Justus. I know that if I'm reasonably fit, I can give him a lot of trouble. Today I got smoked, but one day, Justus will be served!(terrible play on words) At least I got some donuts on the way home, so it wasn't a total bust!
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