Wow! I beat the Burnside!
Caleb, Becky and I left the Forestry Center at 8:00 AM sharp. The course was beautiful, and you couldn’t have asked for a nicer morning for a run. Becky quickly left Caleb and I in the dust. I got the feeling that Caleb could have gone faster but kept pace with me.
The first couple of hundred meters or so were uphill, and there was at least one surprise uphill near Council Crest Park, but for the most part it was downhill, in places very steeply downhill. A fun, fast course, although, once again, I tried to maintain a steady even pace.
As Caleb and I approached the bridge, because of the angle, it looked like it was already up! I hadn’t remembered that the bridge itself curves up and over the river. About halfway up the slope, I saw people waving flags and thought that was the finish line, and started running faster; I always try to sprint to the finish (or at least lumber along faster)! But when I crested the hill, I saw that the actual finish line was down further, another couple hundred meters. Argh! Trickery! Of course, in hindsight, it makes sense; since the bridge is being raised at 9 AM sharp, you don’t want people standing around on the part that goes up.
The race isn’t professionally timed (not sanctioned by the USAT&F) so I don’t know what my official time was. I’m not sure if I’m going to post the results on my Trophy Page or not. But I saw the clock as I finished and it read almost exactly 8:46 AM, which would make this my first 8K and my fastest 8K ever! That translates into a 9:15 pace! Whoo-HOO!
Caleb crossed the finish line just seconds ahead of me (he saw me running faster and his competitiveness kicked in!) and Becky finished in about 42 minutes! Go, Team Saponified!