John Henry Days Four Miler

I’m gonna start this post by saying that 4:30AM is WAY too early to get up to go race. Of course that really goes without saying, but I just thought I’d throw it out there. However, ready or not, we were on the road by shortly after 5:00 and off to Talcott, WV, for the John Henry Days Four Miler. The race drew a good crowd this year, the largest ever in fact, and was actually pretty competitive as well.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot of competition and really didn’t want a whole lot based on the way I’d been feeling all week. I was coming in to the race on tired, beat-up legs, and didn’t get a whole lot of encouragement from the way I felt warming up. However, when the gun fired, a pack of four of us got out pretty quick and the race was on. We hit the mile in 5:15, and I actually felt pretty good. Having a pack to run with made me forget about the way my legs were feeling and the racer in me took over. By the second mile (10:40), the pack was down to three and we did a 180 and headed back. We actually went slightly past the turnaround as for some reason or another the cone was set up about 20 feet past the actual turnaround. The three of us all muttered something about that and proceeded on. We hit an uphill stretch about halfway through the third mile and that thinned the lead down to me and eventual second place finisher Brad Dugan, who runs for Concord. The three mile split was 16:01 and I felt like I was starting to get a step or two on Brad. Knowing I have no speed right now, I pressed pretty hard and began to pull away. I crossed the line in 21:25 to get the win. Brad continued to run well and finished in 21:55. Based on that performance and the way his other guys have been training, I think Mikey’s gonna have a good group at Concord this year and I’m anxious to see what they can do.

Anyway, I’m pretty pleased with this race. I ran just 7 seconds slower than I did on this course 2 years ago when I'd been training much longer and more consistently. I’ve still got a long way to go, but if I can stay healthy and do what I need to do, I just might be able to get back where I want to be.

Below are a couple pics, one of the start and one just before the finish.