Boilermaker in the Books

Well after much debating I finally made a decision about how I was going to run the Boilermaker exactly one mile into the race. Nothing like being punctual and decisive...but then again that seemed to be the theme for the day. We had a caravan of racers (5 cars in total) leave our house a 5:45 to get to Utica, get our race packets and then race at 8 sharp. By time we parked it was 7:15 and by time we got our packets and our potty breaks it was 7:50. So much for a warmup. Anyways I got into my race corral and as I began my inner debate an entourage of people swarmed on my left. To my surprise the race staff decided to place NYS governor James Patterson in the race right next to me. "Have a good race Mr. Governor, but if I beat you I want a tax break." If I only I actually thought to say that at the time, instead I stood there and thought to myself how nice it would be if I had a similar entourage then maybe I could have gotten in a warmup run this morning.
Anyways when the gun sounded I put the Governor in my rear view and ran the first mile in about as fast a time as the 9500+ runners would allow me to go. I hit mile marker one in 7:35 according to my watch. At that point I felt really good and was quite enjoying the music and spectator shenanigans, so I told myself that was how I was going to run the rest of the race. Comfortably and enjoy the event. I could not have made a better decision as the people of Utica made it quite an enjoyable run. There were bands, bagpipes, bellydancers, German dancers, Leprechauns...you name they had it. I feel in my post run analysis I could have run the 15k in 65 minutes today, but I wouldn't have enjoyed the day as much as I did by finishing in 69.5 minutes. No regrets and even better no leg pain.
Now to the showdown between Kelly and Geoff. I felt bad we didn't get there with a whole lot of time to spare, but maybe that was to each of their benefit. The less you think about running the better I have come to learn. Well the race didn't last very long as Kelly pulled away a half mile into it and just kept expanding on her lead. They have not yet posted net times on the web, but I believe Kelly did it in about 86 minutes and Geoff in about 109 minutes. While it didn't turn out to be as much of a race as was highly anticipated, the fact remains they each did it and they each finished with a smile on their face. I am proud of both of them for picking a challenging race ro run and race and even more proud that they each finished and have the experience under their belts. I don't think this will be the last time for either of them as they each seemed interested in going back next year and beating this years time. I hope they do.
The only thing left on the race calendar now is the Sodus Point sprint triathlon. I am in need of a transition to focusing on a shorter event because all of this distance training is starting to wear on me. I can't believe I am actually blogging this, but I am looking forward to doing more speed work for the next few weeks. Bring on those quarter mile intervals and 1/2 mile intervals and massive hills. Once again great job Kel and Geoff and start looking towards the next race.