Results!

17th place overall, right behind a couple of fifty year olds, and right in front of another fifty year old!!! Not bad at all. Now you have to listen to my painful re-creation of the race.

The race was in Calhan Colorado, which is about 35 miles northeast of Colorado Springs. In other words, in the middle of freakin' nowhere! Driving there was a blast, as Zach and Steven and I got to see the Peyton High School. Check out their enrollment numbers, that is about the size of Sierra's track team!!! When we rolled up to the trailhead where the race was, i think we were all expecting trees. There were none. It was open, hot and dusty. Perfect running conditions! (sarcasm.)

We were pretty early, so we decided to walk/run the trail as our warm-up. It was a 6 km loop, and we only saw a few other people on the course while we warmed up. I knew the race was going to be tough at this point because the hills in the warm-up were not kicking, but certainly hitting gently, my ass. It was hot, my throat was raw, and I was getting a headache, and this was just the warm-up! Uf-da.

When we got back to the start line, Steven and Zach's families were there to cheer him on. (Mine were still back in NH) That was nice, and so was Steven's dad letting us take the Volvo! (Thanks Mike!) We changed into our race clothes at the car, I had to strip my sweat-soaked T-shirt off to put another T-shirt that would get sweat-soaked in the first kilometer, I put on my lucky red headband, and off to the start line!

There was a good crowd at the race, maybe about 50 people or so, and this great old cowboy with a pink bandanna was running the show. He was funny, to say the least. Gun goes off, everyone hits "start" on their watches, and down the hill we go.

My first kilometer, I tried to hold back, even though it was mostly downhill. I didn't want to put myself under with 5km to go! I passed through in 4:15. The second km, with a few little kicker uphills, I went through in 4:20. The third KM, with a much more significant uphill, long and gradual, I went through in 5:15. Then, I pulled my groin. Fatigued groin, as Roger Clemens would all it. Great, I guess good training for a race is not watching TV, golfing and napping. Fantastic. The fourth kilometer, which was a really tough uphill, I dragged my fatigued groin through in 6:30. Ouch. Remember, that's a kilometer, 1000 meters, not a mile, and I went through in 6:30. I suck. :)

Fifth km, I picked it up a bit, going through in 5:05 or so, then the last kilometer to the finish, I really pushed hard, and it must have been short, as I got through that one in 2:59. Total time, about 27 and a half minutes, less than ten minutes behind Steven (1st place in 20:05) and Zach (3rd place in 21.37). I made good on my challenge, although if it had been a ten km race, I would have been struggling to make the deadline!

Luckily, Steven's mom's camera died right as I was passing her on the course, so she couldn't get a photo of me racing. I probably look like this though.

After the awards and the post-race feed, we all decided to go to the El Paso County Fair down the street. With our race numbers, we would get in for free!! Sweet! Suffice to say, no one was paying admission, so our race numbers really weren't necessary. We pigged out on giant turkey legs, cheeseburgers, and candied apples. We all ate a little too much, as we couldn't finish the candied apples. But, I bet some deer in the City of Peyton is enjoying them!

Since I didn't win anything in the race, no prizes for 17th overall I guess, I tried my hand at a couple of carnival games. I played the one where you throw a ping-pong ball into a mini-fishbowl. If you win, you get a fish. Suffice to say, I won!
I won a diseased goldfish, and I know it was diseased because it died less that 18 hours later. Stupid goldfish. Oh well, R.I.P. Teva the goldfish.

So, that was our trip to the big race. It was a painful race, I was red-lining it the whole way, but it was still fun. Maybe next year I will train a little more for it!

Sep