Congratulation everyone.
Today me, 2 of my nephews (from 2 different sides of the family), and my brother inlaw participated in the Flying Feather 4 Miler in Dublin.
Nephew 1: Sophomore, Cross Country and Track team. Finished in 24:43 23rd place overall. This is his second year running after switching from soccer. His goal was between 24:00 and 25:00
Brother in Law: Did C25K last year but hasn't run since, decided to walk most of the course in 54:47.
Nephew 2. Nephew #2 is 10 years old but not an active runner. He is generally active though. He has finished a couple of 5K in the past few weeks. For some reason he decided to stick fairly close to me during the race.
Me - Been fairly active in Running/Walking for a couple of years now. Second time running this race. Last year finished in 51:30. My goal for today was 48:00-50:00
Prior to the race, I went back and forth on strategy for the race. As you may remember I completed my first 5K without walking a couple of week ago. I've gone out a couple of times for 3.5 miles but hadn't done four miles yet. Based on my experience last year, and the elevation profile, my biggest worry was going out to fast and not being able to maintain my pace throughout.
I decided to do Run 2:00/Walk 1:00 for the first 2 miles then evaluate from there how to finish. I ended up lining up between the 48:00 and 52:00 pacers (yes they had a pace team for the 4 miler) but closer to the 48:00 pacer.
Mile 1 followed my strategy fairly well. My nephew was mostly running with me. Sometimes he would run ahead during my walk break and sometimes he would go one ahead at a slow jog. I ended up finish up Mile 1 in 12:15 slightly behind my optimistic pace, but also with the worst hill behind me.
Mile 2 Continued with my run/walk strategy. My nephew missed the end of one of the walk break, and ended up getting behind me for a while. Just prior to the end of mile 2, he comes bounding up next to me again. Mostly flat with some slight rolling hills and finished mile 2 in 12:02.
Just past the mile 2 marker into mile 3 the one water stop, and my slowest walk break of the race. I also decided it would be my last walk break. That was also when my Nephew started to I think inadvertently start with the psycholocal taunting. He'd look at me and say thing like "Boy you look tired", or he'd hear my Garmin beep and say "You know it's time for us to walk again" (BTW he finished his first 5K is 32min). He actually ended up on his own continuing the run/walk we had started earlier. He'd sprint up ahead, and then slow down for me to catch up before heading off again. At the end of Mile 3 we passed the 48:00 pace leader. Through 3 miles he was keeping a very good pace. Finished Mile 3 in 11:22.
Mile 4 was mostly down hill to the finish. This was also where I decided to see what I could do. I was feeling pretty good. I completed the first half of Mile 4 in 5:30 (11:00) pace and I'm still slowly accelerating. With about .3 miles to go, my nephew takes off for the finish.Since I had pace myself so well, I was also passing large amounts of people going to towards the finish. Per my Garmin I do the second half of mile 4 in 4:56 (9:53 Pace). Also according to my garmin I did 4.03 miles. The final .03 miles was done in :11 at a 6:56 pace. Looking at the data differently, the final minute of the race I completed at a 7:47 pace.
My Final time according to the offical race results was 46:12, and my nephews was 45:58. I had an over 5 Min. PR over a year ago. Could I have finished faster, maybe (OK probably), I didn't dream I had a shot at doing it that fast. Could I have beat my nephew, Probably not (at least not without tripping him). He had 2 main goals in mind. 1) to run, mostly, with his Uncle, and 2) beat him to the finish. For the most part, he stayed back with me until the end.
Final results looked as follows.
# Time Distance Split time Split pace Elev. chg.
1 12:13 1.00 12:13 12:13 +37
2 24:15 2.00 12:02 12:03 +21
3 35:38 3.00 11:22 11:23 -28
4 46:05 4.00 10:26 10:27 -29
5 46:17 4.03 0:11 6:56 +0
As far as finishing place I finished 2302/3241. So I was out of the bottom 25% of the finishers.
Also, BTW, my average pace today was quicker than my average pace 2 weeks ago when I ran the entire 5K without walk breaks. For me, at least today, the strategic use of walk break in the early uphill section, allowed me to run faster in that section as well as be fresh enough to drop the hammer and the end.
GO! WISH Team GO! 
So we made the drive home and were back in time for the 10:15 5k. Since I started with her I went out too fast (with fast being a relative term LOL) and suffered a little through the rest of the race. We both got 2nd in our age groups but I don't know my time and results still aren't up.
keeping the back of the pack safe and happy. No one ever finishes last in an M3S race cause we do!
Now I need a new goal....hmm....
