What a great day for a run. This is a race report but I also logged 12 miles as a long run to keep the marathon training going. The temps were almost chilly this morning at 73 degrees and a light breeze. It was a very pleasant change from the usual 80's. The 12 mile run went well and I really tried to stay well hydrated today which is something I really don't do well when I run. A rarely drink anything on runs 10 miles or under and I think my performance suffers a bit due to this. Today I drank every 2 miles and felt really good the whole way. Meg and I started our run about 4:45ish and ended just in time to jump in the car and drive across town to the Candlelighters 5K race at Mountains Edge Exploration Park in Southwest Vegas. My plan for the race was to run hard but back off if anything felt out of place with my hip or back. The scheduled start of the race was 7:30 am but due to major parking shortages and slow check-ins and late registrations the race didn't begin until 8:10. Needless to say, it was hot and I was very worn out already from our earlier run. I went out pretty hard for me and clocked the first mile at around 7:13. The second mile turned up hill and I really started to feel the fatigue in my legs. Realizing that we would be finishing on a nice downhill for the last mile I just coasted up the hill as best I could and hit mile two in 7:55. One we started on the down hill I really tried hard to find another gear and was able to push hard with a 7:01 mile and finish time of 22:59. I was hoping to run a little better than that but after the 12 mile run earlier I will take the time and it is a PR for me even though it is not a great time. I havn't run enough 5K's to really figure out a racing strategy and establish a good PR. That will be something I will work toward next year after the marathon. Meg ended up taking 2nd in her age group and so we each took home some really nice hardware. The Candlelighters had children suffering from cancer create paintings on canvas and then the paintings were framed in very nice frames which included a small inscription of our place, age group and the date. It was a very fun event and rewarding to take home some hardware for once. I doubt that will happen very often so I will take it when I can get it. This was a pretty heavy mileage week for me after coming back from injury so I wil probably look to cut back just slightly next week and try to stay healthy for the ultimate goal of SGM. | 