Just peachy - 5 mile race, Sun. Aug. 20

Weirdly, this is going to be the first of two runs today; I'm about to go off for the second. The race was the Wilbraham Peach Festival 5 Miler - tempted by the post race peaches and pancakes breakfast I went along to this one with a mere 24 hours forethought, opting for a bikeride yesterday instead of a run so I'd still have legs. It was an 8:30 a.m start and I registered when I arrived. Small race, 168 registered (Cool Running shows 158 finishers, I think); a mainly flat course in suburban sprawl (very like running in Delmar), though with LOTS of 90 deg. turns which got to be a bit of a chore near the end. I recognised a bunch of the runners, but none in my average speed group. Here's teh deets from Cool Running (I forgot to press stop on my timer until well after the finish, , , )

Time: 33:46
Speed: 8.9
Distance: 5 miles

Comment: a really fun run, and nice distance. I ran it fairly hard, though steady, aiming not to get burnt at the start. The readout was over 9 mph for much of it, and consistent, at least for the first 2. 5 miles. Then I kept losing pace, and had to force it a bit. I ended up being pushed along by the #2 woman runner, a person whose name I know well from the winter runs. I'd trailed her to nearly mid point, overtook on a downhill but never got much ahead of her. Aiming for the two guys in front of me (one 16, one 61!), I managed to stay a bit ahead, and pulled clear at the very end (after initially sprinting early and nearly losing it). Felt fine for me (she improved on her last year time by over 2 minutes I think), and I did a warm down run back to the car of about 1.5 miles.

Sausages, pancakes, maple syrup and peach hash with coffee and orange juice, courtesy the festival and the St Cecilia KofC. Mm-mm! Then home to sleep a bit...