We're for Water 4 mile race report

First PR in years! I'm so excited! This was only my second time running this distance, but a PR is still a PR. I really wasn't expecting much today because I haven't really been training for the last month and a half, and I had been nursing some mild injuries this week. I mainly just wanted to see where I am at now that I'll be starting to train for another half marathon.

When I got to the starting area, I began entertaining thoughts of possibly winning this thing. I didn't see anyone else doing much of a warm up, no one really looked fast, it looked to be a pretty small race, and there certainly weren't any faster looking shoes than mine. I didn't think too much about it though, I just wanted to run a good race.

At the sound of the horn, I took off and was immediately in the lead. It was a new experience for me. It wasn't long before a kid caught up to me (we had been chatting at the start line), and we stuck together for the first mile or so. After that, he slowly pulled ahead of me, and I was never able to make up that ground.

I forgot my watch this morning (which seems to be becoming a pattern lately), so I had no clue as to how I was doing. I knew the first mile was pretty fast. Probably around 6 minutes, but I felt like I kept a pretty even pace from there. As I crossed the bridge and made the final turn to the finish, I saw the clock, and it was still under 25 minutes. I ran a 25:06 last November when I was in much better shape, so I was caught completely by surprise, and sprinted as fast as I could. I crossed the line cutting 12 seconds off my PR.

Final stats:
Official time - 24:54
Overall place - 2nd
Age group place - 1st
Age group award - Medal and a pipe wrench (the race was put on by the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association to promote wise water usage, and encourage fixing leaks). Definitely the most unique award I've gotten from a race.

My swag