Spinal Tap

Leading up to Ice Age I was happy with the training.  Certainly the mileage was lackluster, but the long runs I was performing on the course were actually decent.  The week prior I ran a small 5k event as a tune up and actually won overall.  I didn't even break 20 minutes and I was all alone.  The highlight of the day was having a couple small kids say, "You're really fast."  Which I replied with a dumb smile on my face, "Thanks, you're really fast too."

As I am penning this from my phone I won't go into much detail.  It was a beautiful day, reaching the mid 70's and most knew it could be a problem.  Including me.  Came through the blue loop at around 81 for 9 minute pace.  It's what I expected.  Never felt great, just kept running as planned.  Dewey was getting me through the stations quickly and at the 21.7 turn I was in 31st.  It is a grind back to highway 12, so I tampered it down a bit and was starting to pass a few people.  At 12 (26.2) I should have backed her down, but was anxious to move up.  I took the governor off and at confusion corner was up to about 19th (32+).  Now I know many people out here and it's always great to hear how good you look.  I was tired, but was looking for the magical hot spot to occur.  In my mind I'm still thinking top 10 because the race is now beginning.

In the movie ET towards the end, Elliott proclaims to one of the older kids who states ET should just beam up or something, "This is reality Greg."  Yeah...it kind of was and by 35 miles Dr. Smith pulled Robot's power pack and it was over.  Just like that.  I knew I would finish, it was a matter of just doing it.  At Emma Carlinhos (40.3) I turned for home and blazed 16-17 minute miles.  I finished in 9:13 for 39th overall.  The biggest surprise was how few people passed me the last 15 miles.  It shows you how the warmest day of the year does indeed affect everyone.

Notes:

Thanks to Dewey again for the outstanding crew job.  Heck, he picks me up and delivers me home.

Thanks to Andrea, Christine, and Dewey for getting me to the medical tent.  It was very kind of all of you to attend to me and I am grateful.

Thanks to Joel and Christine.  It was good to be able to run big chunks of the run together.  Thanks for all the kind words.

Thanks to Jeff (race director) and Angela (volunteer captain) for everything.  Assigning me race number #1 was a huge honor and I got a ton of mileage out of the fact throughout the day.

Thanks to Andy Arena (30 time finisher) who when he saw me said, "Dehart, it's a buckle.  When you get to 30 they give you a nice cutting board."

Thanks to everyone else I missed who helped.  It was a great day.

Congrats to my Minooka friends who stormed in for buckles.  Andy looked great coming in for his 26th finish.  And hats of to Dean who returned from Mt. Everest base camp the week before to finish in 11:55!  Hootie Hooooooot!!