Training in Montana

Got to meet Meb Keflezighi today at work and watch his press conference as he kicked off our Big Sky State Games. What a nice man. Got my picture, as you can see. Run To Win. Great book if you haven't read it.

90 degrees at race time, 20% humidity. It didn't feel too bad. Warmed up for maybe a mile then changed into my flats. Started right at 6:15. I started slower than those around me and ended up passing most of them later. After 1/4 mile there's a short steep hill and I powered up but didn't kill myself. Took me awhile to get back to a 6:30 pace. There's a smaller hill after a half mile and that slowed me again. At one point I looked at my watch and I was running 6:08 and wasn't dying. I thought I kept that pace so didn't look at my watch for a while. Next time I looked it was 6:44 so I picked it up. At the turnaround I was still above 6:30 so I tried to pick it up. The last mile was my best. I took a small drink at 1 mile then again when I went back through the station but I mostly dumped it on my head to stay cool and got every spray of water I could find. The neighbors are awesome and the fire department had their ladder truck spraying water at about 1 mile. Hit it coming and going. Kept pushing it and felt a little light headed but not bad. Hit the last downhill and was under 6 pace for a bit but then held 6:30 until the track. 300 on the track and I kept it steady until the last straightaway and pushed it. Finished with a 30 second or so PR. Felt good about it, then turned around to find my 12 and 9 yo boys. Ran in with my 12 yo as he was struggling. 9 yo missed 30 minutes by 7 seconds. He was ticked when he found out. Should have trained harder and worn a watch! Lessons learned for him.