4-0 at Race for the Cure

Every year, Auto-Owners insurance signs up as a team for the Lansing Komen Race for the Cure, and for the past 4 years, I have entered the race as well with them.  This years race had the worst racing conditions yet, but I actually ran my 2nd fastest time of the 4 years that I have ran it.  We had a steady 25-30 mph wind during the race and I still managed to eek out a 15:56, giving my my 4th win in 4 years.

Going into the race, I had every intention of trying to dip under 15:00, but after looking at the weather station, I knew that plan was going out the window.  I started out the race by tucking behind Chris Stoddard for about the first half mile.  Eventually, I realized that I was being kind of lame by making him take the wind and do all the work by himself, while I drafted off of him saving up my energy, so I decided to man up and start racing a little.  When I finally made up my mind to go out and take the wind on my own, I threw in a hard surge to gap us, so that we would both be taking the wind and he couldn't use me, like I had been doing to him for the past few minutes.  From that point on, it was just me and the lead biker.

I came through the first mile in 5:10, which was a surprise.  I really felt like I was going 10 to 20 seconds slower than that.  My two mile split was 10:28, so my last mile must have been under 5:00.  Every time that we were running into the wind, I could hear Chris getting closer, but then when we got the wind at our backs, I would pull away.  My race plan at this point was to chop my stride and take it kind of easy going into the wind, and then open up and run hard with the wind, and it almost felt like his strategy was the opposite.  He ended up 11 seconds behind me in 16:07.  Following the race, Chris and I ran an 8 mile cooldown.  This capped me out at 15 for the day, so I might or might not need to do a long run tomorrow.    

Afterward the race, I went to Edens Juice, on the corner of Michigan and Washington, and had a complimentary smoothie and "Grand Slam" juice shots sampler.  The shots were pretty intense, and I think they could be surprisingly addictive.  It started with wheat grass, followed by ginger, lemon juice, cranberry juice and pineapple juice.  The pomegranate smoothie that I had after the sampler was really good.  If you get a chance, I would definitely recommend you stop in there sometime.