Memorial mile

    The Memorial Mile is one of my favorite races in the area.  There are lots of favorites but I run this race every year if I am in town.  It's one of the only 1 mile races where the average runner can just sign up and run.  Entry fee is $8 and they have lots of prizes afterwards.

  So, I went out there with intentions of breaking 5:00.  I knew it would be a stretch since I haven't done a single bit of speed work this year.  I ran a good warm up, 6 miles with Jen and then a couple more before the start with Rocky and then with Kevin.

  There seemed to be less runners than normal and not too many that I knew were racing this year.  Felt kind of odd.  Anyways, we lined up and the gun went off.  I took off a little slow with like 30 runners ahead of me but slowly began passing them as the race went on.  Many of them went out too fast, like normal.  I thought I went out slow but still had a good first 1/4 mile split of like 68 seconds.  I began passing lots of them the next quarter mile too including Tom Grantonic.  I passed him right before the half mile mark as we ran to the top of the hill together.  I think i picked off one more runner at the bottom of the hill but it wasn't enough to break 5:00.  I ended up with somewhere around 5:04.

  Not bad for no speed workouts and only pacing marathons.  That's probably the only 1 mile race that I'll run all year.  This will be one of the few race pics that i'll be able to post this year as my parents were at this one and they can't make most of the other races.

I'm coming through the finish line