Tuesday, May 18, 2010

assessing the competition

OK, I admit it...I like to know who is out there and how fast they are, and where I am stacking up. It's part of what makes the sport fun. Yes, ultimately, it is about me and the clock and my own personal best, but it's fun to compete, and I feel like racing others does bring out better performance.

So I noted with great interest the results of the recent 15K in Riverside, CA. It was for masters only (over 35), in 5-year age groups. The female winner, Vicki Pritchard, 51, finished in a very respectable 1:34:56. John Magnussen, 57, who racewalked the Portland Marathon just a bit slower than me last October, finished in 1:33:52.

On Sunday morning, while they were racing, I was doing a moderate 20K, and got to 15K in 1:36:54, or 2 min slower than Vicki. Not bad. I wonder how I would have done in a 15K race? I sure would have liked to go, but with my foot iffy when it was time to decide, I just wasn't ready to commit and buy the plane ticket; besides, I care the most about the 5K and 10K in Sacramento this summer, so I had to gear my training to that. Oh, and the financial end of things...$ for plane, car, food, hotel, etc. was too much to spend.

So I was pretty sad I wasn't there last weekend. Lots of online RW friends there that I would have loved to hang out with and race with. I know it would have been a lot of fun. Oh well...too many races, and not enough time and money to go to all of them.

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