On my way home from Rin's Hill, I stopped to greet the elderly man whose wife past some months back. I expressed how much his words meant to me last month and how I appreciated the chocolates she'd give me. He said, She was the kindest and most beautiful woman. The 54years of marriage was the happiest of his life. He loved when she smiled. She smiled every time I ran by saying, "There goes that runner." He chuckled as he thought of her. I formally introduced myself. He introduced himself as J-A-Y Bailey. Well Mr. Bailey, I'll be stopping by to check up on you and we can share smiles together.
Mystery Achievement - Master's 1s Place4th of 1031 Overall 1st of 72 Age Group 50-54Chicago training ramped mileage to +100 week with more intensity on hills and track-work (400s). My legs should be tired, but with good rest Saturday, race day seemed like a good day to accomplish something special. However, soupy humidity played havoc on everyone at sunrise. I stood at the start, the fog I drove to the event in did not lift. The thick dense mist felt like scenes from a Stephen King novel. This was going to be a heck of a ride with a goal of 33minutes. The gun sounded and my engine rose to churn my legs into gear. Like a shot, I went right after the lead pack. I stuck right behind them. Rayder the Legend disappeared in my first few steps. “No need to chase that,” I though. But the cluster lead of 5-7 runners including the amazing Rita Jorgenson (2015 RRS Winner), seemed abnormally within my reach. “Was the heat doing that much damage to them?” I tailed the group for the first mile until the pace quicken. The 5miler notoriously rounds many curves. The key is to run the tangent and fix the line to the best cut. Find that course and don’t deviate. As other runner rounded wide on a turn, I cut sharp and accelerated hard and fast. By mile three, I was in sixth position. Target one showed kinks in his armor immediately, his head stooped, shoulders drooped, and he kept looking at his watch. Though painful, I knew I wanted to be on that course more than he did. I approached him and made an inside move on his wide turn then gunned past. I didn’t bother to turn to look at what I did, I went immediately after target two. Bogie #2 was relatively close to my last pass. A false flat opened an opportunity. Not a hill grade, the street rose just enough to cause discomfort. Instead of treating it as flat, I lifted my knees, effort and air intake. I charged hard up sucking in the warm morning liquid vapors. Each breath was clogging my lungs like a clove cigarette at a New Wave 80’s dance club. I knew I needed and liked the air, but this air was not good for me at all. However, in the back of my mind I though, “If this is bad for me? This is really bad for the guy in front of me if he didn’t train in it this week like I did.” With that thought, I opened-up and went passed him in a hard charge.All that was left was the park. I had not looked at my watch once since mile one. However, I knew two things: I felt fast and I hardly had any targets ahead. I couldn’t even hear the last person I passed. I could only run this for myself, for my time. The park rounds a baseball field and onto another windy paved path. My mind danced a game of let up or hammer hard. If I let up, who would care? No one would know if I cruised the last 1/2mile. No one would know but YOU. My burning psyche would never allow “Money Left on the Table”. The IT monster in the Fog and inside me rose up and unleashed a horrendous fast leg rotation. The IT reasoned, “You are running a brilliant race. YOU WILL NOT FINISH WITH ANYTHING LESS THAN YOUR BEST DARN IT!”As the finish approached, the clock read 31:XX. My Personal Best was 32:24. I crossed the line at 31:48. I just crushed my best 5miler by +30seconds. With hands on knees almost in prayer, I looked back to see no runners approach. I left the monster on the course…….
