Tomorrow is race day. Unless the pain in my neck returns or some other mishap happens, I will run the 10k in Tempe for Maggie’s Place. There are also 5k, 9k and 15k races taking place tomorrow. Since the field will be divided into 4 groups, there is a decent chance that I will medal in my age group.
My PR for a 10k came a couple of years ago when I was a much stronger runner. It came on a tough hilly and 10k course in DC Ranch (my regular stomping grounds). On my Garmin, that course measured shorter by almost a fifth of a mile which saved about a minute. It was also a perfectly calm day with chilly temperatures. With my PR at 43:19, I would have to average sub-7 for a new PR tomorrow. This is out-of-the-question tomorrow. It is expected to be cool by Phoenix standards but temperatures will still be mid 70s. I will be happy to average anything less than 7:20 per mile and finish the race in 45 minutes!
My bib number tomorrow is #1123. I’m not superstitious but I do feel good if my bib is an odd number with either 5 or 7 in it. This time, 1+1+2+3 adds up to 7. Excellent!
I can still feel remnants of my neck pain. This didn’t prevent me from running 3 miles on the treadmill with 4 x 30 second sprints. Unexpectedly, the neck pain triggered a headache in the evening during dinner-time. We went to Cafe Bink where I had polenta with bolognese as my pre-race meal. I think polentat is just a sophisticated word for grits!