Luke - 5.5

23' w/u, 1500m TT @ 4:33, 15' c/d.

Zack joined me for his first speedwork in forever. Conditions weren't too bad, but a bit of wind on the homestretch. Splits were 51, 74, 73, 73. Felt fairly strong but not very fast.

I am running Bloomsday in two weeks, which is a 12k in the city I grew up in (Spokane, WA) that I have done ten times. I first completed it in 1992, when I was seven. There are about 50,000 participants each year, so they have a bunch of different sections where you start, based on how fast you are. My goal since I was seven has been to start in the elite section. Last time I ran it, in 2006, I was in the one just behind that. Anyway to get in you have to write in with race results showing that you have a good shot of finishing in the top 50 overall. The deadline to do that was 4/15 so I was going to use my Oregon Marathon Relay time, but the results for that make it hard to find my time and impossible to prove it was even me that ran it. So I emailed the guy telling him I ran 33:28 but that results were hard to find, and that I ran 16:02 last year, and that I'd be running an 8k this weekend if he wanted to wait on results from that...I said I'd run about 26:00 in it. He Emailed me back saying, "Contact me on Monday with those results," so now I'm pretty amped for this race! I also noticed there's a $100 prize for first place, so that should mean good competition as well as even more motivation. 26:00 is super tough but I think I can do it! This might be the most important race I've ever run (yet) (I guess most of my races haven't been too important).