Running for Nancy, a new PR and meeting the host of Burning 20

Today I got to run my race for Nancy. Many of the racers were running for themselves or loved ones who have fought with breast cancer. The dedication was inspiring.

A full moon greeted us as we arrived in the dark around 6:00am. Excitement was already in the air. The temperature was a cool 68 degrees F. A beautiful sunrise preceeded the race start. I met a new friend, Laura, who was running her very first race ever! She was very excited.


As I waited for the race to begin, I ran into Adam Tinkoff, the host of the podcast Burning 20 (an excellent listen, by the way - you can find out more at http://www.burningtwenty.com). Like me, Adam is also training for the Disney World Marathon in January. In addition, Adam and I are participating this weekend in the Phedippedations World Wide Half Marathon (http://www.steverunner.com/halfmarathon.htm). It is always fun to meet folks in person that you feel you know after meeting them "virtually."

The race started off a bit crowded but I was able to make my way up to where the crowd was a bit thinner. I know that I took off at a strong pace, but I wanted to try to break 30 minutes today - and I figured I could adjust when I saw my mile 1 time. Well, mile 1 was NOT marked, which I realized after going about 11 minutes. I pressed on until I saw the mile 2 marker which I crossed at about 19:28. My pace was under 10 min/mile, which was what I was shooting for.

Now I had a couple of things working against me. I am suffering from a cold right now and had tanked up on decongestants last night in a failed attempt to sleep. So strike 1 - I had about 1-2 hours sleep. That was not my trouble. The drugs made my mouth and throat dry, leading me to stop for water at mile 1 and 2. Though I only walked for perhaps 30 sec each time, it made the difference for my final time.

I was pretty winded but instead of walking I slowed my pace to catch my breath. As I rounded the last corner for the finish line I sprinted to the finish. I could see on the clock that my time was about 31 min - as I crossed the finish line and stopped my watch, my net time turned out to be 30 min, 3 seconds. Just 3 seconds shy of busting 30 minutes. I was excited that I was able to set another PR and be so close to a 30 minute 5K.

Tomorrow my first ever 10K race - the Race for the Taste 10K. It's back to Disney early tomorrow morning (I need to be there by 5:15 or so) and a run through MGM and Epcot. Should be fun!