Douglas Menz

Doug, despite very little in my workouts that made it appear in any way possible, despite the NWS-reported temperature of 97° at gun time, and despite my advancing age, I did it. Last night, on the track at Rhodes, I covered The Bud Mile in 4:57.9, unofficially. Don't have all the splits, but I think they were reasonable, a little bit "fat" over the back-half, but not too bad, about 1:16 at 409m and about 2:28 at 809m. Gave back some time on L3 but (think) I held position. Gathered it back on L4, incrementally going faster at the bell, but knowing that 300m was not the starting point for a kick, especially in that heat. Then, at the end of the back-straight, 200m to go, I lit 'em up, knowing there was still a bit more "juice" available and thinking it was enough to carry it to the line. Then, just a bit out of T4, I started to tie-up. "Oh, crap!" I thought, it was either too fast, too soon, or both. Then, maybe halfway down the front-straight, I saw the clock rolling over to 4:50! Hell, yeah, baby, take a good look at my awesome a$$, 'cause I'm takin' this bad boy home and that's all your gonna' see! Okay, full disclosure, was 9th in the A-Main, the fast heat, but was 1st Master. Results haven't posted, but it feels pretty good. Now, it's on to Firecracker 5K, on the night of the 3rd, then Bele Chere 5K, in Asheville, on the 25th. CU, Steve