New Shoes and the Midnight Express

Got new shoes on Friday...will post a pic later.

As for the Midnight Express, there were over 2000 runners which was a record for the race. It was really quite a scene. The whole Cross Country area was just packed. The pack at the start extended from the SunTrust parking lot all the way down to Country's and the street was slam full. The race route starts on a road that is wide enough to be a 4 lane almost and it narrows to a true 2 lane as it moves up Auburn. So when you have all these people funnelling into such a narrow chute, it really slows things down. I was about mid-pack at the start and it took me 30 sec. to reach the starting line. As a result, it took me the better part of the run down the 1st leg of Sue Mack to find a lane to run in without having to worry about people stopping in front of me or slower runners. I may have lost a little time because of this...but it's hard to say in the grand scheme of things. I handled the hill on Edgewood well but really ended up tired up on Clubview. Around College, I started to pick it back up again and ran well down the hill in front of HHS. But then the E. Lindsey leg started and it was quite a long feel to it. I did not push it here or on the way up Edgewood back to Sue Mack. In fact, it was here that I really felt like stopping. But I didn't...Instead I moved up Sue Mack and really started being concious of picking up the pace around the turn onto Auburn. Hitting the hill at Cross Country, I really picked it up and sprinted to the finish. It was the best and hardest finish that I have had yet in my few races.

What did I learn? If I go to the race as early as I did again, I really want to have folks to hang out with. Either that, or just stay home for a while longer. I ended up having too much time with not enough to do.

I need to work on my speed. I was really hoping to be able to push a little harder, but because I had not trained to do so, I was afraid that if I did, I would crash early. It is definitely time to start working on my times.

Start closer to the front next time. Too many people running and then stopping before the 1st turn made life a bit difficult at the start. Maybe I could have hit 25:00 if I was up there.

I finished in 26:16. Not bad since it is 2 minutes faster than my training runs this week on the same course. Great time all in all. Country's race results have me at 26:43 which means they started timing at the race start....not when you actually cross the starting line. There is almost 30 seconds right there.