Redemption at the 10K Corral

Since I was going to be Eugene for the Fourth of July, I decided a few weeks ago that I would participate in the Butte to Butte 10K. I first did this race while studying for the bar in 2003, but haven't done so since then. For me, its a challenging course. The first mile is uphill, followed by one and 1/2 miles of downhill and winding up with 3.5 of flats through the streets of Eugene. Neither steady uphills nor steady downhills are my favorite, but there are usually over 4000 people that do this race, so there are plenty of people to pace off of and/or pass. And we all know how much I like passing people and crushing the souls of the weak.

Despite the lingering fatigue in my legs from Sunday, I had been looking forward this race because I needed to alleviate some nagging doubt about my ability to run at something faster than ten minute (OK, OK, twelve minute) pace.

I did a few things differently that I typically do for "fun" runs. First, I got up a bit early and ate. Second, I did a pretty thorough warm-up: a few track laps of jogging and two laps of the active stretching drills that we do in Jeff's class. I think this made a huge difference because although the start was slow due to the hills and the sheer number of people that participate, I was loose and comfortable ride out of the gate.

When I headed over to the start area, I ran into some good friends from my days at Linfield: Joel and Lora. Lora is from Eugene, but now lives in Seattle. It didn't even cross my mind that they might be here for the weekend, but with the holiday and the trials in town, they made the trip south for the weekend.

Lora decided that she wanted to run with me and I think she held on until the last steep pitch on the climb. After that, I ran alone, accompanied only by the kickin' tunes coming through my new headphones.

I can't lie. My overall pace was about 8:17, but I had to work hard and focus to keep that pace. I really need new shoes and my feet are still very tender from Saturday's flip-flop trek. But I know that I went as hard as I could, as I had nothing left to accelerate on in the last half mile.

Stats:
51:27 (8:17 pace)
Mile 1: 9:40
Mile 2: 7:41
Mile 3: 7:43
Mile 4: 8:10
Mile 5: 8:08
Mile 6: 8:03
Last .2: 1:58.

This is a full minute slower than 2003, but at that time I was running 4-5 days a week and started near the front of the pack, so I'm considering today a total success.

In other running news, I went for a 3.5 mile run yesterday with my brother Chuck. This is a truly remarkable event because it was the first athletic activity that we've ever done together that didn't involve one of us ending up either (1) bloodied up under our parent's basketball hoop or (2) grounded. I am really proud of him. He has lost over 4o pounds in the last few months and is planning on running a marathon in October. After that is over, I am going to start working on him about doing a triathlon with me late next year.

Happy Fourth of July!