Law Week 8k

We've been through some things together
With trunks of memories still to come
We found things to do in stormy weather
Long may you run.

Lyrics by Neil Young

I was at the Celtic Ireland Pub in Brugge, Belgium last week and requested the song "Long May You Run". It was the only one on the musicians request menu that had a running theme. Since I am a long time Neil Young fan and since I hope to run long, it seemed a natural. Nothing better than a pint of Guiness and live music in an Irish Pub.

My overseas trip did not set me up well for the Law Week 8k. On the positive side, I got in three nice workouts. On the negative side, I broke training with too much food and alcohol. The main problem, however, is I felt miserable last night and this morning as I may have picked up a cold. I almost scratched since my resting HR was high and I felt achy and somewhat weakened. But I took two ibuprofens and gutted it out since I did not have a fever.

I met fellow HRB members June and Jen before the race, which was a real treat. We lined up together and took off on the well known Allen Parkway circuit with its quad unfriendly underpasses to deal with. I took the first mile somewhat conservatively and steadily ratcheted up the pace until I hit the 5k mark in 25 minutes flat. This pace would have me finish in 40 minutes. So I set my sights on finishing in under 40 minutes and did so, a 39:37, which is a 8min/mile pace. It is also 10 minutes and 12 seconds faster than I ran this race last year (my racing debut as I had just started running). Not bad for being under the weather and jetlagged.

I was fortunate in the last mile to spot some people ahead of me I knew and trying to reel them in helped my racing. With about 200 yards to go I was gaining on one of these acquaintances. I yelled his name, he picked up the pace and we sprinted to the finish which was fun. At chip removal, another person came up to me and said he was trying to catch up with me for the last few miles but never could. Having others around to push one forward faster is always useful.

I went back to cheer Jen and June on to the finish by alerting them to the free beer at the end. I met up with June afterwards and she was very pleased by her run, it was much faster than she had expected. She is only going to get stronger in the months ahead as she sets her sight on a half marathon.

I am now officially exhausted. Long may you run.