Firehouse Pickle Run in the Streets

Last night (Wednesday) I ran a Run the Day pickle prediction run. The race went through the streets of Garden City and ended at the firhouse with a BBQ. Here is a picture of our group prior to the run.

Chief Cheerleader and
Keeper of the contraband

If you don't know, in a prediction run the goal is to predict your finish time in advance and try to see how close you can get to it. It's a lot of fun and the winners are not necessarily the first people to cross the finish line.

Now, a key thing in a prediction run is that the participants can not use timing devices. Duh, right? Unfortunatley not all of us rememberd that fact. Dave graciously offered to keep all the rule breaking devices for the group.

The course ran through neighborhood streets and some of the locals came out and cheered. The BBQ that followed was not all that well organized but once you got some food it was good. Of course that could have been that we were starving when we got in line so by the time we got to the front of the line we would have eaten liver and succatash. I'm kidding...I'd starve before I'd eat either of those. Despite taking a long time to get through the line the time passed pleasantly enough as everyone was having fun.

Weird thing - our bibs had a note on the back that said "10 % discount off painting with this sweaty bib" from the sponsor Nolan Painting. A cute idea except that we had to hand our bib in to get food.

So how did I do? Well I predicted 34:10 back when I signed up in July. I figured that on my average pace at the time and expected a hot humid evening. I could not have been more wrong on the weather. It was a gorgeous low humidity evening.

My finish chip time was 32:07. So I failed in the prediction part of the run but I'm pretty sure this is a new PR for me in the 5k. Cool! Best part is it felt comfortable.

It must be my new shoes. I was overdo for a new pair. I could feel it at the end of my long runs.  I finally purchased new ones on Monday evening. I tried several brands just to be sure there wasn't a reason to change. In the end I stuck with the Saucony Hurricanes. The new model is so much lighter! It's a significant differnce and they feel awesome!

So during the race there was this woman in front of me most of the way. She would run for some and then take power walking breaks. I mean POWER walking breaks she was incredible. During her first power walk I caught up to her. I got a few paces in front of her and she started running again. I laughed to myself that she probably saw me and said "No way am I letting this old lady beat me". Anyway for the rest of the race - whether on purpose or not - it seemed that just as I was about to overtake her she took off. It was kinda funny and kinda frusrtating. Well when the results came in I noticed I was number 2 out of 2 (so ....last) in my age group. Guess who was #1 by 9 seconds.

15 mile long run followed by breakfast at the Collegeville Diner with friends on Saturday! :)

Edited 9-11-12: I was looking up past race results last night and discovered that my PR for a 5k is actually 30 and change back in 2009. Seems that 2009 was a very good year! :) Anyway wanted to set the record straight.