Racing on the 4th

July 4th is Saturday and this holiday means a lot of things to different people... the three obvious things it means to me are:

1) It is the United States of America's Independence Day... aka 'birthday'.

2) Rednecks will come out of the wood work, regardless of where you live, and shoot off fireworks until 3am.

3) Road racing

So Saturday morning I have narrowed down my many choices and will be opting for the Bay Days 5-miler.

I ran the race a few years back and got 2nd in 25:03 to Rick Bement who won in 25:01. This year will be mightily different. Bement will be vying for his 4th Bay Days win, whereas my goal is to run within 2:00-2:30 of my previous time on this course.

Typically I would not even race considering my current fitness and more importantly the numerous injuries coupled with inconsistent training over the last 2.5 months (and all of 2009 for that matter). But if nothing else this will pinpoint my exact point of fitness and prove to be a good motivator as, chances are, I'll get lite up by quite a few local runners.

Plus, with the way the calendar looks, this may be my only chance to race until mid-August at the earliest, so I figure I'll jump in and toe the line.

Looking at my current mileage and training paces, I think sub 27:30 is realistic, sub 27:15 would be a bonus, and anything faster than that... well, it's still not where I want to be (or should be), but I'll take it.

I'm going out to race hard and compete... but I know there's still a long way to go and most of my goals are long term at this point. So I'll take my lumps now, knowing full well where my plan will lead me.

* Timothy