4 the Park race - 6th overall

I finished the 4 miles race in 6th place in 22:09 and 1st in my age group once you throw out people they put in the wrong age group. This was a tough race and not my best, but considering the week of training and the weather conditions I wasn't too disappointed. When I picked up my race # at Luke's Locker yesterday, Joe Flores told me that Adam Davis was running since the winner got a free airline ticket. Any time a race gives out airline tickets or a decent cash prize you get some of the good runners showing up so I knew I didn't stand a chance at repeating as winner. I wish they had given away an airline ticket to the winner last year!

The weather was warm and it was very humid. When I got up at 6:45 I checked the weather and the temp was in the mid-60's with 94% humidity and it didn't get any better at race time. I like this race since my house is only 3/4 of a mile from the start line. I did a 1.5 mile warmup with my friend Benson and changed shoes and did some stretching at the house and then about 8:20 left to jog to the starting line and did strides while I was on the way. I saw Adam Davis, Luis Armenteros and Junior Mitchell at the start line so I knew realistically the best I would get was 4th unless one of them dropped out.

The gun went off and Adam, Luis and Junior took off and Rudy Rocha, Tom King and Brian Alvarado all were ahead of me and they quickly separated into two packs. I was all alone in 7th place and probably 10 - 12 seconds back of Rudy, Tom and Brian. I've run quite a few races against these guys and usually I can beat Tom and Brian and sometimes Rudy depending on what kind of shape he's in. I hoped to reel them in later in the race. I was still all by myself at mile 1 and went through in 5:23 which is pretty close to where I wanted to be and I was probably 12 - 15 seconds back of the 3 guys in front of me. I didn't really gain any ground during mile 2 and went through at about 10:59 with a 5:35 2nd mile. I tried to pick it the effort during mile 3 and I started to gain a little ground, but midway through the 3rd mile Brian put a gap on Tom and Rudy. I thought I'd be able to catch Tom and Rudy, but Brian was pulling a little farther away.

I ran mile 3 in 5:38 and was gaining a little ground. The last mile was tough and I could tell I was going to catch Rudy and I passed him with a little over 1/4 mile left, but there was too much of a gap to catch Tom and I finished in 6th in 22:09 with a 5:31 last mile. My 21:00 from last year would have gotten me either 3rd or 4th place, but the weather conditions were definitely better then

I was slower than I would have liked to be, but I ran a tough 20 miler on Tuesday and it was hard running in warmer conditions than I've done any hard workouts in. My hamstring didn't bother me at all during the race which I was felt good about. I may think about running the Bellaire Trolley Run next weekend.

I kind of got screwed for the age group awards since somehow they put Luis in the 30 - 34 age group even though he's in the 35-39 age group so I "officially" got 2nd in my age group. I won't complain too much though since 2nd place got a free 1 hr massage at Koala and 1st place got 5 free personal training sessions with a personal trainer somewhere. I'm not sure if I would use those or not, but I can always use extra massages.