This race was all about age group bragging rights, and a guy named Angel Guzman had dominated the 55-59 age group all year. He had run over a minute faster than I had to this point. This being a finals night I knew my SCR buddy Nigel Toates would be tough to beat as he always seems to run well at finals. One runner in our age group that had been fast early in the series, Greg Garmin, did not participate due to an automobile accident, but we're all looking forward to racing with him next year.
I decided to go old school as far as shoes go for this race and I brought out my brand new pair of green Nike waffle racers. The shoes I have are actually replicas of the shoes I wore in high school and college. They even have 1977 on the insole. I don't think they are made for running, but I decided to bring them out and got a lot of great comments on the vintage nylon shoes.
My green Nike waffle racers
I went through my normal warm-up, my legs didn't feel too tired from all of the racing I had done this summer, but the bottom of my feet hurt a little bit. That pain went away as I loosened up before the start. Robin, Keith, and Ethan also were there to finish off another COC summer series. It was nice to see some of the Frazier Mountain runners besides Aden show up for this race as well. The weather was fairly mild for August, only about 86 degrees out when we lined up on the baseball field for the start.
I did some extra strides and lined up close to the front. I got a great start at the sound of the gun and went out fairly hard to beat some of the high school kids to the first turn. I felt good as we wound our way out and around the baseball fields.
Heading towards the center of campus early in the College of the Canyons Summer Series finale.
Photo by Margaret Bates
I tried to settle in at a decent pace but not hard enough that I would die when we got to the big hills during mile two. It always amazes me at how many runners don't hit the tangents or set themselves up for an upcoming turn so as not to lose momentum. The College of the Canyons course is fairly tight during the first 3/4 of a mile and some runners have no clue as to how to properly negotiate that type of a course. I have learned that when running this course, my best times come when I hit the first mile at a fairly good pace and I did a good job of that running a 6:28 for mile number one, by far my fastest time of the year.
Feeling good rounding the turn to head up to the first-mile marker
Photo by Margaret Bates
Now came the fun part, trying to maintain speed in the hills. I didn't try to go hard up the hill at mile one, just maintaining a nice steady pace. I was using my usual short strides and concentrated on the ground as I went. When we got to the freeway portion I was in a good place and floated along trying to miss the soft spots. Soon enough we were at killer hill. I started my usual short easy steps up the hill and got passed by people walking. I figured what the heck, and I went into the power walk mode. I'm still not sure what's better for me, but I passed those guys back as we topped the second half of killer hill. Little did I know that this was Angel Guzman, and we were actually battling for the age group title. In fact, we had been together since about mile one, I just didn't know who he was. I pushed myself down the hill towards the small hills on the top of the course. This is the hardest part of the race because your legs are fried from the steep uphills. My second mile split was a 7:35, by far my fastest of the year. From this point to the finish it was downhill to the track. No more uphills. When I got to the pavement Greg Garmin shouted at me to lean forward. I was just trying to maintain form and turnover to the track. When we got to the track I started pumping my arms as hard as I could and I got back around Angel Guzman that had passed me as we entered the stadium. I could feel him behind me and gave it everything I had, drifting out a little in the final turn, but still protecting the inside of the track. I held on to beat him to the line. My third mile was 6:14 but my pace on the track running to the finish was 4:48.
I won my age group by a tenth of a second
This was the most fun I've had actually racing since college. Most runs or races we do turn out to be time trials, not actually racing against another person. It was my fastest time at College of the Canyons by over a minute this year and I had a blister on each heel from my replica waffle racers for my effort. I quickly downed some waters and went out in search of Robin and whomever else I could find to cheer on to the finish. I ran and walked uphill backward on the course, cheering on the FMHS runners, some SCR's, and then there was Robin. She was looking great and powered her way to the finish with her best time of the season and a third-place finish in her age group.
College of the Canyons gives everyone who ran the series a free dinner on the finals night. Robin, Ethan, Keith and I elect to go to Loves Sushi and forego the dinner and awards ceremony. We gave our meal tickets to some high school runners and headed out. Our friends picked up our medals for us and we went out for a quick bite before our respective long drives home.
Our post-race treats at Loves Sushi
I survived the finals race without any Depends issues. I was still having leakage but nothing like the one race earlier in the season. My only issues were the bottom of my feet hurt and blisters on the back of my heels from the shoes. This also was the first time in years we had run all of the races. We are already looking forward to next year, but it's going to get tougher for me as I will be in the last year of my age group.
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