This might be my favorite event in Lincoln.  Many people would pick the Marathon or Half-Marathon, maybe one of the mud runs in the area, heck I love the Buffalo Run (more on that in September).  But I can go anywhere in the country and find a marathon or other such event

But a road mile?  Ooh, that is a rare treat.  I am well past my best “mileing” days.  Through the course of time and experience, I have become a stronger, tougher, better runner.  But you can never replace speed.  That being said, I get geeked up every year for this event.  I continue to push towards getting back to the day where I ran 4:37 on this course.  But July 10 was not to be that day.

Step out the door, immediately engulfed in thick Heartland air.  Not a day for racing, but fortunately this race is only a mile and before the conditions can really get to you, the suffering is over.  Met up with a number of dudes who I have been lucky enough to train and race with over the last few years.  Warmed up with Levi Ashely, Jason Shanahan, Derek Sekora, Logan Watley, Mohamed Hamdan, Ryan Salem.  At my age, the time (even before races) we have to BS and hang out is something I treasure and don’t get to do very often. It is one of my secret pleasures in running. Saw some other guys there both familiar (Paul Wilson) and unfamiliar (Trevor Vidlak, Nolan Borders).  It was going to be a big Elite Mile heat.

The way this event works is that racers are divided into heats based on age and sometimes gender.  So rather than everyone racing at once, you race people similar to you, at least in age.  Oldest age groups go first and then down through youngest.  At 10am the elite women go, and then the elite men follow them.  I am by no stretch of the imagination elite, but I like to challenge myself and there is no better way to run fast than to run with fast people.

Our heat started about 10:10.  Heat index was about 102 degrees.  Whatevs.  Gun goes off, and I get my usual slow start.  About half the pack leads me, and my boy Salem, through a 68 second 400.  This race always starts fast because the first quarter is a straight shot line. We then hop onto the brick loop in front of Memorial Stadium.  Smart starters shine here on the uneven footing.  People who went out too fast begin to fade.  Salem and I made our move around 4 or 5 runners and by the time we reached halfway (2:19) we were in the second chase pack looking at a top 5.

But now the real racing begins.  At about 900m or so, you have to complete a hairpin turn around.  Think about the fitness test in grade school where you had to pick up the erasers and run back and forth.  This is the running version of that.  You come around a cone, you have to explode to get back to speed, and your heart rate just redlines for the next 700m.  We gave chase to Hamdan and Borders (Watley, Rono, and Vidlak were clearly the class of this field).  With 500 to go we drew even and almost passed the two high school studs.  But then they showed their 1:54 and 1:55 speed gapping us in the last quarter.

I managed to hang on for a 4:47 officially, Salem had a 4:45 and my other consistent training partner Levi came through in a solid 4:49.  All my injuries over the last 18 months considered, this is a good place to start my comeback.