Steve - 4.1

Today was my battle with the Bear. Before the race I was waiting to use the Porta-Potty and struck up a conversation with another runner. When I got to the start line I recognized my suitemate from my senior year at college that I hadn't seen for 5 years. Turns out he was friends with the Porta-Potty Guy(I will call him PPG from now on). Weird coincidence! PPG said he wanted to run about 6:10-6:15 pace, which is about what I was figuring I was capable of.  My old suitemate (MOS), said he wanted to run between 20 and 21. It was a smaller race so once the gun went off I didn't need to jostle around with other runners. The Bear took off a bit faster than I would have liked. MOS and PPG were right with the Bear and I was about 10m behind. I didn't feel like I would be able to maintain that pace so I just wanted to keep them in range.

The race was on the Venice Boardwalk for the first mile. All sorts of homeless people were gawking and commenting on the Bear. After we turned off the boardwalk onto the street, we approached the 1st mile marker. I was a little further back from the Bear, probably about 20m. I hit the first mile in 6:20. I was feeling pretty good at this point and sped up a little. MOS, PPG, and the Bear were still all running together but I wasn't getting any closer. It took forever to get the turnaround. It was actually 2 miles instead of the customary 1.5 ish. MOS started fading as we approached the turned around, but PPG was hanging tough with the Bear. When we turned around, I figured he was ahead of me by about 20-25 seconds. It was gonna be tough to close that in one mile. But I knew had a chance because he was wearing a bear suit and I wasn't. I passed MOS with about a half mile left but I was beginning to struggle. I wasn't slowing down but I wasn't speeding up either. My dream of defeating the Bear was fading. I did what I could for that final mile but it wasn't enough. I took one final turn and I glimpsed PPG and the Bear far ahead of me. I crossed the line in 19:16 for a pretty solid time. The Bear finished in 18:46 and PPT slightly ahead in 18:44. MOS was a few seconds back of me in 19:20. So I didn't get the free pair of shoes that PPT and 11 other runners were fast enough to get. I think with another a few weeks of training I could beat the Bear, but I won't have a shot until next year. I talked to the Bear after he took his mask off and he said he is a 16:xx 5k guy. The Bear suit apparently slowed him down about 2:30 or so.