2008 Flying Feather Four Miler

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone, and I'm happy to say that I've gotten up early and raced once again on Thanksgiving morning. And Mrs. P joined me this year too! We did the Flying Feather Four Miler in Dublin, OH for the second year in a row. This is a very well done race. The course is great with some uphill at the start before flattening out. But what goes up, must come down, leaving a nice downhill near the finish. Of course there is a slight uphill finish, but it's so small it doesn't factor in. We had beautiful weather this year with around 22 degrees, no wind, and no clouds. Did I mention all runners receive a bottle of wine? Yeah, that's why we do this race...

I was fortunate to run once again with my friend John who lives in the Columbus area. I found out he's venturing beyond the marathon into ultras and having great success! He stayed back with me for the first three miles before punching out the last mile in sub 6 minute fashion. I'm grateful to have been able to pace off of him again, as I would have slowed down to catch my breath after the first mile. We did that first mile in 6:19. My lungs were burning from not being used to going that hard in the cold yet. If I were at the track, 6:19 would be a good mile split, followed by a 400m jog to catch my breath. No such luck in a race. Mile 2 passed in 6:34. A little more manageable pace. Mile 3 was right on at 6:33. But I was gasping to breathe. The cold had congealed something in my lungs and I could feel it when I inhaled. I told John he could take off if he wanted, and boy did he move out! The last mile was the slowest in 7:04. I knew I was going to PR the course, so I just ran as hard as I could, trying not to worry about catching anyone ahead of me, or preventing anyone from passing me. My finish time? 26:26 at a 6:37/mile pace average. That's 3 minutes and 26 seconds faster than last year! I don't know how I'm going to match the level of new PRs next year, or if I should even try. I was 7th of 110 in my AG and 29th overall of about 2400 runners. John was 5th in our AG, but would probably have won it (not to mention being competitive in the overall) if he hadn't decided to stay with me for 3 quarters of the race.

I had a great race and followed it by eating a TON of food for dinner. But I did something a little different this year. I ate mostly main course food, two helpings, and only one slice of chocolate peanut butter pie for dessert. And I only drank water while eating. This morning I weighed a half pound LESS than yesterday morning. Coincidence? I think not!

Today I'm going to climb on the bike and try to do about 30 miles or so. I'm also planning a longer run for Sunday before the snow machine starts up again. We only have ONE more race planned for the year, a week from tomorrow, and then it's just training miles until next spring. Good luck to everyone finishing out they're season.