Rock and Run

So, after close to a year without working out regularly, I somehow let my cousin Kendrek Staheli and his friend Wendy Pollock talk me into participating in an absolutely insane 5K, even after we walked the easy part of the course.

Anyway, I wasn't very sure of how I would do since I hadn't worked out for a long time, but I knew that if I felt any kind of good Kendrek would be the one to beat since we were always pretty close in high school Track and XC, all the others were unknowns.  I was pretty certain that Wendy would beat me as well.

It was a pretty early start, at least it felt early since I had stayed up late watching John Wayne movies...not the smartest move the night before a race.  I started out in the front, but way too fast, so my legs pretty much died out after the first 200m but picked it back up after another 150m.  I fell back to about 3rd at that point, but us 3 in the lead kept a pretty good pace up to the base of the hill.  It was a pretty steep incline with lots of cinders and gravel, so every single person walked up the first hill, then most of us picked it up for a slightly less steep portion of about 50m.  I got passed by 4 people on the first steep hill but caught them on the less steep part and the next steep hill.  All told it was probably about a mile straight uphill, during which I caught 3 people.  After that it was a good 400m to the turnaround point, up and down, very similar to the Hurricane Rim Trail, then it followed that part down until the main descent.  This was just as steep as the climb, and about half the distance, but much scarier since most of it followed a barbed-wire fence and it was unstable at best.  After this it was a fairly moderate downhill to the wash about 200m from the start/finish line.  It climbed out of the wash then was quite level the rest of the way.  I was well in sight of the 4th place runner during the last 200m but lost to him by about 50m, although I was closing the distance pretty quick the last 150m.  As I did every other race I've run in Enterprise, I proceeded to lost my entire previous meal at the finish line.

Overall I was pretty satisfied with my performance on this race, considering how long it was since I had last worked out.

Decided to get my butt in shape for the Fair Run so I went for an easy 4 that turned into a 5.6 cause I was feeling pretty good.

Anyhow, I left my house at a fairly easy pace to get warmed up, wasn't sure how much my legs would stand up to.  I headed down 400 S from my house then turned south onto 920 W.  At this point I was breathing kinda hard but feeling pretty good regardless, didn't even start sweating till about halfway down 920 despite the humidity from the rain this morning and afternoon.  Once I hit the end of 920 and turned onto 1300 S I was planning on going back on 700 W but was feeling pretty good at this point so I decided to extend my run a bit.  I kept going on 1300 then turned south again on Sycamore Lane then east onto 1460 across to Angel Heights Drive, about 1.5 miles out from the finish line of the Sand Hollow Marathon for those of you who ran that, then followed that onto 180 W down to 650 S where I cut back across to 920, then north onto 400 and back home.  I was sweating pretty bad of course and my calves and quads are feeling it but I feel really good after a relatively cool shower.