<p>Went into this race [again] planning to take it easy, and I think I did a better job than the past two. It was a hot 4th of July this year, and the canal, as always, was humid as hell and a little bit muddy.</p>
<p>Nothing to really note on the race itself. It’s a fun one where older folks start upto 21 minutes ahead of males in their prime. The idea is that people of different ages at the same skill level will finish at the same time. The male group 18-29 was a particularly fast one so I found myself in last place for a solid half mile until I caught a slower runner in the age group above us. Interesting feeling.</p>
<p>I finished the race feeling really strong in 28 minutes flat (1:41 faster than last year and 1:20 slower than 2008). Pretty slow if it was a four miler, which it should be considering it’s an out and back between two mile markers (2 miles apart), but if years of running on the canal have told me, those are not measured correctly. I clocked in at 4.1 miles, as did others, making this more like running a 27:19 for a true four mile race on gravel.</p>
<p>Either way, I wasn’t trying too hard, but still felt great for going at a decent clip, AND had no hamstring or hip pain following. No idea what to attribute the lack of pain to since the past two races had four days of severe hip pain following, but I’ll take it.</p>
<p>Am I healed? Time will tell. Time to start running more.</p>
<p>I was planning on riding in a mountain bike race tonight, but it has been drizzling all morning so that’s probably out. That’ll leave my next race as next Wednesday’s mountain bike race, which will be followed by another four miler on the canal the next evening.</p>