It was a warm day in Forty Fort this morning when I ran the 26th annual Lions Forty Fort Old-Fort 5-Miler. I did well despite the heat (note it was the FIRST race of the reason with NO SHIRT!) I made great use of the water tables, getting water each time and then dumping it on my head when I had taken enough. I still ran it faster than I should have, I tried to sustain my 5K pace (7:10/mile) for much too long, and i strained my right hamstring. I’m recovering from it now, and I don’t expect it to put me out of action for too long, however it taught me an important lesson that I have to STRETCH better! In addition, I pushed myself too hard, which I have to watch for. I finished in 82nd place out of 246 runners, not a great showing, but not bad (7th in my age group). My official time was 36:42, I expected to run it in around 38-40 minutes, so I did better than I expected.

here are my splits:

Mile 1 – 6:57 — ran this WAY to fast, however I have that habit
Mile 2 – 7:20 — the heat started to kick in at this point, first water stop was here as well.
Mile 3 – 7:40 — This is an estimated breakout time for mile 2 and 3 (i missed mile 2 somewhere)
Mile 4 – 7:43 — At the start of this mile, I felt my hamstring starting to tighten up, slowed down a bit, but it didn’t help.
Mile 5 – 6:59 — I picked up speed as we ran up Wyoming avenue, I passed out the rest of the pace group (7:22-7:26 group) that I was running with for a good part of the race. It was funny but i got blown out by an 18 year old right at the end, it was funny.

This was also the first race where my family joined me and watched, it was great to actually have someone there to celebrate the race with. We stuck around for the parade as well, I haven’t seen one of them in awhile. The shirt they gave out for this race is a little tacky (yellow and blue baseball shirt, not my colors) .. although I know i’ll still wear it.

Regardless, we’ll take it easy for a day or two until the hammy heals up. Blue Emu rub is awesome for this, it took the pain right away … going to keep up the R.I.C.E.