Saturday, April 18, 2009

Mission Accomplished

As you know last year I began running. The initial goal was to get in good enough shape to be able to run and finish the Morton Pumpkin Festival 10k. While training to do that run I entered a few 5k races and had good success. At that point my competitive nature began to take hold. I continued to push myself in subsequent runs and was nearing a level that would allow me to place in my age group. With that in mind I set a goal to place in a race this year.

I plotted out the races that I planned to enter this year, and scoped out the competition. I figured out that I would have to maintain a 7:15/mile pace to be able to crack the top 3 in my age range. I have run that fast for a mile or two, but never for an entire 5k or 4 mile run.

Enter todays Eureka Run with Your Heart 4 mile run. They were giving out medals to the top 5 in each age group, so I pegged this as a golden opportunity. I lined up this morning with high hopes and an anticipated time of just under 30 minutes. Anyone have a guess as to what the guy in the picture below put up?



27:56.

I not only broke 30 minutes, but as you can clearly see I was sub 28 minutes for the 4 miles! The entire run I kept telling myself...DO NOT SLOW DOWN...YOU CAN MAINTAIN THIS...YOU WILL PLACE. At the 13 minute mark I reminded myself that I could do anything for 15 more minutes, or in this case 14:56. My time was good enough for third place in my age division and 24th overall. To say I am pleased with myself is an understatement.



I ROCK!!!

Cheers

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Give that man a Gatorade! NOW!!

Norm Deplume said...

you do rock. :)

Anonymous said...

Way to go Chris - and I won't even make comments about your joints!

Keep up the good work - you can always achieve what you really want to achieve. Dad and I have known this ever since you were a baby!!

Love,
Mom

PumaQ said...

Way to go, Chris. Interesting to see that competitive aspect rear its head. Have you started remodeling a room to hold your trophies?

I'm proud of you!

Cousin once removed, Pam