Race #169
Mile #1
2019 Race #13
Milliman “Moose” Mile #1

Short and sweet. That’s the mile, although not so much the sweet. Sweat perhaps, not sweet.

I found this race while looking for possible alternatives for a June race after I decided not to run Sunrise. (At that point, I still planned to run the full marathon at Zermatt and needed to get a long run in somehow.)

At only $6.25 and just a mile, I decided to go for it. If all else failed, I would jog for a mile with a bib and consider that my June race.

As the time approached, I decided to run all out and see where my fitness had settled since I stopped doing speedwork several months ago. The time probably wouldn’t come anywhere close to what I ran back in 2014 at the track meet.

Mom and I lined up near the front amongst the small but decent-sized crowd for an informal evening race.

A little after 7, we were off.

The only tricky part of the race came at the start. The race director warned us several times before we started to be careful around the corner and the curb. They had a volunteer up there reminding everyone as we passed that the ground was uneven.

We rounded that corner and headed up the road, definitely up. I did not plan on uphill. Well, I did not plan on anything actually but the hill did not feel good.

I pushed the pace as we headed up the hill, constantly telling myself that the race would be over soon. Just a mile.

We made the turn around in a parking lot just off the road, much easier than a straight 180 turn which I thought we might have to do. That would have certainly cut off the momentum.

I knew at this point that except for right before the finish, we had all downhill for the second half.

Even though I did not really feel like it, I picked up the pace as much as I could as I headed down that hill. I even passed someone!

(That’s him just behind me in this near-finishing photo by Ellis.)

Right at this point we had just the slightest uphill and then ended up finishing on gravel so no all out sprint at the end.

I finished with 7:10!

Seeing as my fastest recorded mile is 6:30 and I haven’t done a speedwork session in 2019, I’ll take it!

Mom came in a mere 20 seconds behind me, looking strong!

She ended up winning 1st Grand Masters. I settled for 2nd in my age group. 🙂

I will be back next year. Hopefully I will have gotten back into speedwork too!