PRs for all

On a whim, I decided to race the 5k in the "Ricky Byrdsong Race Against Hate" up in Evanston. I was going to pace Ella but at the starting line, she hooked up with a friend from soccer and gave me the "please disappear" treatment. On Father's Day, no less!

So I decided to gun it and I was feeling pretty good somehow. I kept passing people and when I thought about settling in with a little pack, I thought, Jedi-style: "this is not my race, my race is up ahead." I hit the two mile mark at 14 minutes and I was pretty happy with that. I finally got passed by someone, a shirtless tri dude who looked legit. I drafted him into the final 1000 meters. Turned out he was running with two guys, one of whom he called "coach." Coach edged ahead and I jumped into his quoute/unquote draft, saving it for the sprint. Turns out I was running outside of my pace already, and this guy just started to build speed and I couldn't hang on. A third buddy of theirs took off with 500 to go, like I'd hoped to, but I was already on the edge. I held off tri guy though.

21:17! That's crazy! I've never really run that distance before and playing games with those guys gave me a 6:30 final mile. I ended up 5th in my age group, 56th/1294. I'll take it.

Ella and her friend got boxed into a crowd and never got out. They came in just under 27 minutes, two minutes off her PR, but I suspect that it might have done them a favor to pace them. It was funny to hear her afterward squawking about her eight and half minute pace, saying she hoped to hold seven and a half. She's ten. I still don't know how to figure out my pace until I look at the clock afterwards. Turns out she got 6th in U14. I smell the podium next year. An hour later she paced a 4th grader in the mile like it was nothing. What's up with these kids? I didn't have any sort of athletic achievements until I was in my 30s.

Lang also knocked two minutes off his PR, finishing the mile in just under ten minutes. He came up with his own little pacing strategy too. I've told him stopping is just bad news, but walking fast works. He'd run until he couldn't run anymore, then slow down to a fast walk, count out loud to five, then run again. Doing this three times got him through. It was pretty cool to see him figure that stuff out without me just telling him the whole time "keep it up, almost done, looking good..."