Last night I ran my first race in over a year and a half. The Twilight Festival 4-miler, held in Leesburg, was a nearly flat 2 loop road race. I hemmed and hawed about how hard I'd run it, thinking I could just pace Brenda since I'm supposed to run 11 today. Instead I decided to race it.
I went out at a steady pace between 6:15 and 6:45. I had started behind 100-200 runners and slowly worked my way through the pack. Throughout the race I was dealing with a dry mouth again, but the water station just beyond the 1/3 mile marks was enough to alleviate that problem. For a brief moment I wanted to just relax at the end of the race, but I decided to tough it out, holding off one runner at the end. The guy was in his 40's and definitely competitive. We exchanged congrats with what little breath we had left.
I ended up 75th out of 1053 runner and 10th in my age group with a time of 28:50. According to my Garmin, my weaving put me at a tenth over 4 miles. I decided to go unencumbered by the HRM this time around.
| distance | time | Pace |
| 4.10 | 26:50 | 6:32 |
Brenda had a goal to finish faster than a 10m/mile pace, and not only did she succeed, but she ran 38:50, a fantastic time for her. I'm really proud of her; she ran hard all the way through the finish.
We met some cool people at the post-race party. One couple I had picked out pre-race as being contenders were in fact excellent runners. Both ran last year for Longwood University in VA. Matt ran sub 23 minute, putting him near the front of the pack, and Jacquelyn was right behind me. Her shoes had something on the toe that kept clicking every step. It was like I had a metronome pacing me.
They were hanging with a 57 year old man who ran sub 6m/mile. The guy, Chuck Moeser, turns out to be a legend in the running masters division. That's the kind of drive and determination that we'd all like to have while nearing our golden years.
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