Trophy(less) Night

Aaron and I both raced at the Bush Park Trophy Night Cross Country Runs (Edward and Meg said they want to run next year). Aaron completed a perfect season, winning each of the three races he entered. He moves up to a new age group next year, so he probably won't have the same level of success as he has had this year. Aaron crossed the line in about 2:55, about 10 seconds faster than his last race three weeks ago. He excelled at maneuvering through a multitude of kids who started too fast, then slowed down before the straightaway, but really pushed hard to the finish--passing several older kids before finally finishing out-of-breath (but not so much to cause an asthma attack). I was racing when he received his award, but I understand that he was all smiles. It's still hard to believe that Aaron has one more year at home before public schools will admit him.

I, on the other hand, finished well behind the leaders (overall and my age group) and didn't meet my goal of 19:59 or better, crossing the finish line about 8 seconds too slow in 71st place overall. I was on a good pace for the first mile (6:20), slowed down too much in the second mile (6:40), and didn't quite have enough resurgence in the last mile plus (6:28 pace). If I hadn't disrupted my training while in Utah, I probably could have nipped the 20 minute mark; but it leaves me feeling hungry to train better and run faster for next year's series.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Partied Like It's 1999

Image
1999 symbolizes my "freedom" time: I was a college graduate, gainfully-employed, virtually debt-free, and single/childless. I pretty much did what I wanted and didn't have to report to anyone or commit to any thing. This past week felt like I had stepped backwards in time, as Meg decided, on a whim, to drive to Salt Lake City--with kids in tow--and stay with my parents for a week. Since I wasn't part of the road trip, you'll have to encourage her to share any stories , although she has confessed to me that she's done with blogging. Here are the highlights of the back-in-time party that was this week: Exercise : Besides my daily 11-mile round trip commute by bike to the office, I went on three other bike rides around Clackanomah County, swam at the pool twice, and ran once. Cleaning : Organized some of our outdoor living space, cleaned the house from top-to-bottom, washed the G20, cleaned my bike, and manicured the outside landscape. Sleep : Every night wa...
Read more

Hiking the Timberline Trail

Image
I don't think I've been on a true backpacking trip before. Back in high school, my friend Bart and I planned a multi-day trip to Carl Lake, but we ended up turning around after one night of camping at Cabot Lake because it was raining so much and we'd rather stay at his family's cabin instead. I also hiked up to Moraine Lake as a scout leader, on the way to South Sister, where we camped in preparation to summit Oregon's third tallest peak, but we left all of our gear at the lake on the second leg of our climb. That was back in 2001. I first learned of the Timberline Trail by reading a brief summary of it in, of all places, Portland Monthly. Sure, it was 35 miles farther than I had ever backpacked before, and it involved two more days and nights, and I would be going solo. But the summer of 2016 is all about change and new beginnings for me. Day 1: Timberline Lodge to Ramona Falls I slept in Tuesday morning, as I was up late Monday night making my final preparat...
Read more

A Wild Black Sheep Chase

Image
It all started with a tweet. The tweet guided me to a blog. The blog inspired me to craft an e-mail. The e-mail led to a phone call. And the phone call led to my agreeing to trade my 1993.5 Infiniti G20 for a 2010 Black Sheep commuter bike (1 of only 13 in existence). All of this happened within 24 hours. From New Bike An informal part of our agreement to move to Portland was for me to get rid of my car, since I had committed to biking or riding the bus to work--and I never did drive the G20 once we moved to Portland, except once every other week or so to keep the fluids moving through the car. I had posted my car for sale at the G20 enthusiasts' site , but I didn't get any substantial bites, nor did I do much to promote its sale (Meg would like me to remind you that I took a year to sell my del Sol after buying the Maxima ). So when I saw a blog post about New Belgium's car swap at the Tour de Fat , I called Meg and proposed the idea to her. She thought it sounde...
Read more