This past Sunday marked a few notable milestone for me. Not only was it my 16th racing event, but it was my first race in the 30-34 age division. I keep telling myself that the next 4 years could be my fastest, so I have plenty of time to prove it. Unfortunately for me, my pie in the sky dreams of getting a PR in San Antonio were derailed, quite literally. Before we had finished the first mile of the race, we were stopped by a train crossing. A train crossing! I first noticed it when I heard some booing just ahead of me. I looked up and noticed the train crossing arms lowering, blocking an already large crowd of log jammed runners. And with more runners coming up from behind us, the crowd was only going to grow larger.. I exclaimed my utter disbelief aloud. I simply couldn't believe that the organizers hadn't planned for this. We were delayed anywere from betwen 3 to 6 minutes as we waited for the entire train to pass. Considering the large group that had been jammed up there, I knew that the delay had completely erased the wave start and that we would have to start up a dense crowd all over again. I turned to my cousin Peter and told him that we could forget about PR'ing. But you know what, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all.
One of my side goals for the weekend was to help get my cousin over the finish line in under 2 hours, a feat he has never accomplished in his many years of racing. Six weeks prior, I had told hiim that if he commits to training with me in the weeks leading up to the race, that I would personally guarantee him a PR time for him. To my pleasant surprise, he stuck with the training. Our confidence was boosted even more after we had a great training run the week prior to the race. Things seemed to have just clicked in my cousin. He has unlocked the technique that I used to call "the magic stride!" (It's basically the well known running technique that a lot of veteran runners use that maximizes distance running efficiency in your running gait.) I had discovered this technique several years back and I had been hyping up all this time. So it seemed as though Peter had finally discovered the power of it to help him run faster. It worked so well for him that we agreed to rename the technique "Texas Boots" as an homage to one of the greatest side scrolling brawling games of all time, River City Ransom. Also, it just seemed appropriate. Anyway, so back to the weekend of the race. At dinner the night before the race, I start telling Peter that I felt that a 1:45 finish was in the cards. I could tell he was nervous about that idea. A 1:45 finish was much faster than even my current PR of 1:49. The 4 minute difference may seem minimal but the difference in pace to achieve that is pretty significant. So in my excitement I had set some pretty insane expectations for both of us. I could have potentially set us up for a big letdown really. You see, my original goal was to post a solid run under two hours. Now all of the sudden, I wasn't just talking about beating my old PR, I was talking about completely annihilating it. All that talk about speed records might have unnerved Peter. Mind games can really ruin a runner's pysche. So maybe the train delay was kind of a blessing in disguised. I told him he could relax now, because the pressure is off. It must have worked because he put in a great run and finished well under 2 hours for a new personal best. I was really excited for him because I knew how big of a milestone for him that was. You see, although he had been running for many years before me (despite being just 26), he had told me that he hasn't ever had a race that he was really proud of. I was determined to help him change that and I was thrilled when I saw that he did. Congratulations Peter!
As for me, I posted a solid 1:56:30. (That's before the time adjustment for the train delay, which I still need to officially calculate and submit to the organizers...)
Also, I have to once again thank my amazing wife, who is my biggest supporter and my greatest inspiration.
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