Race Day

Getting to the race with Dave and having enough time to register was no problem although I do think that they should have a seniors rate for us old timers.I believe that I was ready to run the race last night every time I sat down I thought of some thing else to do, then waking up every so often wondering if it was time to get up to get ready for the race although I had packed my gear for the run the night before.Warming up for the race took me through the Saanich fair ground and along Skelly cross road for a slow run seeing all the runners and wondering which way we had to go for the race. We had 800 people at the start of the race all bunched up tight like a herd of horses waiting, stretching and jumping up and down, eying every one seeing if we could get past them or if they would offer us some competition in the race, telling each other to look out for that guy or girl because they could kick butt, slapping our legs to get the blood flowing a bit faster wondering if you were warmed up enough for the 8k.m race. I believe the count down had started and once the front started to move it had a domino affect with each row of runners starting- slowing- dodging and then running again to finally getting into your race pace and finding that pace to try and maintain it for the remainder of the race which is a big bonus if you can do it,{ A steady pace that you can keep} Trying to keep a steady breathing pattern also helped me and i must have breathed in all the fresh air of Saanich, running along the cambered road didnt help any seeing I always seemed to slide to the lowest part of the road, then listening to the heavy footsteps of a runner coming closer and closer and it seems that your mind is at a stand still, by not telling you to move your legs faster as they seemed to be frozen to the ground getting to the 4 km at close to fifteen min Im usually able to pick it up,seeing I was still ahead of my competition but here a other slope loomed up ahead and the turn around was not to far ahead getting to the last km I saw the red running shoes of my rival and watched as he pulled ahead not being able to match him with his stride and ended up loosing a good fifteen seconds in that last stretch going up the hill to the finish. Run Hard -- Train Smart