Up hill battle......

OK, so I don’t mind the hills in running or biking. On George, my bike, I proudly have a Spanish bull that gives a nod to all the Basque and the Orange Wave for climbing in cycling. In running, “hills are money in the bank” as Earl would say. I love the hills.




However, in last Sundays Mercer Island, there were more hills than downhills!

Climbing one after another and then hitting 5.5 miles and seeing the finish way at the top of yet another hill. Uphill finish, totally wasn’t expecting it.


Overall it was a really good race, I PR’d by 17 seconds and more importantly I ran a smart race from mile 1 through 6. Each mile I kept myself in check at one of the few flats I was rolling around 6:40 minute mile and had to say the one word out loud to slow down – Nookachamps

With that said I slow down to 7:05 and instantly got passed by 4 people, which I caught 2 around the 5 mile mark and the last 2 on the last hill to the finish. My last full mile was 6:58 and miles 2 and 3 were even at 7:05.

At the last .25 mile the 5K and the 10K meet up and cross the finish together. I saw AK about twenty yards ahead of me and tried to close the gap before the finish and got about 15 feet behind her, so close. She said about her race, the 5k, steady and no surprises. Which means she’s almost 100% recovered from her fracture from the Foot Zone 5k race in Redmond back on August 5th of last year. She said about that race” I was on fire, then I felt like I was on fire!”

Her recovery seams to be right on track as she just signed up for the new Seafair Half Marathon : )

Here's a picture of AK finishing up Bridal trails 5K in 2006

So all in all Mercer has a good race, maybe a little hillier than it needed to be, not sure I’ll be rushing back next year for it. The shirt was really cool.