4th of July Race (2016)

On July 4th I ran a 4 mile race that was put on by my local running club Sierra Challenge Express.  It's a fun 4 mile race that they hold every year at Woodward Park.

Last year I finished in 26min 30 secs, and I really wanted to run faster this year.  In preparation for the Dirty Dozen 12 hour race that I had coming up a few days after this race (The Dirty Dozen was on July 9th), I started hitting the track with my friend Sunny a few times a week.  The two of us would run 400 meter repeats in the nice 100 degree (usually warmer) Fresno heat.  I was starting to slowly get comfortable running fast again.

On the day of the race my girlfriend Samantha and I got to the park with enough time to relax a little bit before the race and warm up.  I was excited to see how fast I could run at the race.  The course is relatively flat, with just a couple hills in it.  I hit the first mile way too fast (6min 06secs).  I started to ease back on my pace and relax.  I knew a couple miles into the race that there would be a hill coming up, and I didn't want to be burned out by the time I got to it, so I slowed down just enough so I would have some energy for the last part of the race.

Samantha & I after the race.

I ended up being smart during this race. I did not get caught up with beating the person in front of me, but I was more focused on beating last years time instead.  I stuck to my game plan and didn't let my ego get in the way.  Doing this allowed to run more relaxed and I finished the race this year in 25 min 24 secs.  This was 1 min and 6 secs faster that last year.

I felt pretty good at the end of the race.  All the speed work on the track and being patient during the race had paid off.  I finished 12th overall and 3rd in my age group (30-39 years old).

I took a lot of time off from running the shorter local races when I started running ultras, but right now I'm having fun jumping back into the local races and trying to run fast again.  There's a 5k coming up soon that I might jump into so I can try to beat my old 5k personal best time.  I feel like my speed is slowly coming back, and I want to see what I can do.


Until next time...

KEEP RUNNING!!!!

Hanging out with Sunny & Jason after the race

Sunny designs running shirts and jewelry.  You can check out her stuff at http://www.endureshop.com/