Tidewater Striders Mile
August 5th saw my first track “race” in a long, long time and it turned out to be a good one. The Tidewater Striders held their annual “Strider Mile” race on the rubber track at Landstown High School. About 75 runners showed up to race, and heats were assigned based on predicted finish times. I happened to be in the first heat with an anticipated mile time of 5:15-5:20. As we lined up, I kind of wished I was in the slightly slower second heat….
However, as the race unfolded I was pleasantly surprised at how I was able to move my way up the field. At the half mile there were only a couple of runners behind me, but this is where I pushed for home and surged through the pack. With 300m to go I was sitting in 6th place. 2 of the guys in front were in my age group, and being a Tidewater Striders Grand Prix event I was desperate to catch them. From somewhere I found more speed, accelerated past both of them and kicked for home to finish in a surprising 5:06.
The mile is not a race I run very often (first one for 3 or 4 years I think), but if I trained with this distance in mind I’m sure I could break 5:00 quite easily. Anyway, it’s nice to know there’s still a bit of speed in these nearly 40 year old legs, but it’s time to look ahead to the Rock’n'Roll Half Marathon in September and then the Marine Corps Marathon the following month…
PS If you like the Strider Mile logo, it’s another one of my logo designs. Contact me for more details if you’re interested: steve.speirs@gmail.combroken windows free
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