100 Triathlons
Go to the early blogs to read how I got into triathlons. Click on any picture to enlarge it. "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood...who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly." Theodore Roosevelt 1910

Monday, March 2, 2015

Real Florida 10K Trail Run

Saturday was the 28th Annual Real Florida 5k 10k in Wekiwa Springs State Park.  Since I'm on the board of the Wekiva Wilderness Trust and it's a big fund-raiser for us, it was important for me to do well.  The morning was overcast and 55' when I arrived to help with registration at 6:30.  However the Friday crew had everything laid out very well so there was little to do but relax.
Kevin and me
My friend, Kevin Casey, was doing the race for the first time and he arrived about 7:15 as parking gets a bit tight later on.  About 8:15, we headed over to the 10K start, a little further than the 5k, which started 5 minutes later.  The gun went off at 8:30 and I took off immediately.  After about a mile I was 10th overall and the runners began to get strung out.  In the next mile as I settled down to my race pace, 4 people passed me.  The new course cut over on the Blue trail and over the little bridge which I saw had been carpeted for the event.  I passed 2 people by the time we got to Marker 15 on the White trail and really pushed my pace.  As I topped the hill at 13, I looked back and saw 1 runner about 200 yards back.  I became aware he was closing about mile 5 and he passed me with about a mile to go.  I stayed on his tail and my Garmin reported I was running at an 8:00 minute mile pace.  As we turned uphill onto the service road near the finish, I was still right behind him.  About 100 yards from the line, I cranked it up and surged past him to the finish.  He was 44 so not in my age group but I really enjoyed the chase.  I won my age group 60-64 and my time, 56:02, was good enough for 12th overall out of 79.  The 5k race had 173 participants.  My finish time of 56:02 resulted in mile splits of 8:50 with the Garmin showing 6.34 miles covered; last year I had a time of 53:22 but the course was shorter at 6 miles even.  Kevin came in soon after me and really enjoyed racing the trails we usually train on.  Our charity made a good bit of money and everyone enjoyed themselves.
Race to the finish

Kevin after the race

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)