I ran a local turkey trot today. I was expecting that I would probably win the race, but I knew that on occasion some really fast guys showed up. I drove to the race with my dad, and I met an uncle and a few cousins at the race (I have tons of family in Arizona). Anyhow, I got warmed up and went to the start of the race. The race started, and I took off behind a taller guy. He didn't look too imposing, but he took off pretty quick at the beginning of the race. When I saw the tattoo of the olympic rings on his calf I knew I was in trouble. Ends up it was Andrew Lemoncello, who was an Olympian for Great Britain in the steeplechase in Beijing. My problem at this point was that I was way out in front, but loosing ground to Lemoncello quickly, and it was super windy. Just my luck, as it is always windy in Vegas. Anyhow, I made it through the mile in 4:59, and hit 2 miles in 10:00. I hit the three mile mark in 15:11, and then 4 miles in 20:19. I was passed by a running from NAU during the 4th mile. He had a teammate who had run at nationals on Monday who was pacing him, as he had been the last man left off the team to nationals and this was his season ending race. The pacer was good for him as he didn't have to fight the wind as much the first 3 miles, and he was able to catch me during the 4th mile. I was able to hold it together and stay with him through about 4.5 miles, and after that he slowly started to pull away. The mile marker at 5 miles was wrong, but I hit 6 miles in 30:41 (5:11 average for 2 miles) and I finished a minute later. The NAU runner was 12 seconds ahead of me, and Lemoncello finished in 29:51. He honestly did not even look like he was trying very hard when I was close enough to see him, and I think he would have broken into the 28's if it weren't for the wind. Overall, a decent race for me. It was a good way to knock some of the rust off as I start to try and get back into the swing of things.
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