Steve - 4.1

Today was my date with destiny. Racing the bear. As some of you may recall, I had a duel with the Bear last year. If you beat the Bear you get a free pair of running shoes. Last year the Bear ran 18:46. Based on my track workout from earlier in the week, I knew breaking 19 was a long-shot. Nevertheless, I held out hope. Race day was incredibly cold for L.A. It was definitely below 50 for the 7:15 am start. There were several fast-looking HS runners and a few other fast looking older runners. I basically wanted to hang close to the Bear as long as I could and see what I could do. At the start I gave the bear a few meters of distance and settled into a comfortable pace. The course was a bit odd. We run about a mile, then turn around and run roughly 2 miles back in the same direction. The Bear seemed to start a bit slow as a bunch of people took off ahead of him. But I stuck relatively close to him. After the turn (which was supposed to be a mile but was definitely longer), I was probably about 5-6 seconds behind him. I figured I should start moving up so as not to let him get away. Apparently he had the same idea as he gradually accelerated and continued to put a gap on me. Once we hit what was supposed to be the 2 mile point (it was most definitely not), I figured I was about 15-20 seconds behind. I knew it would be tough to make up that much time in the final mile and change, but didn't give up hope. I started to surge as best as I could. But, alas, the Bear did as well. There was no marker for mile 3 but I was still about 20 seconds the Bear when we near the ~3 mile point. There was a nice downhill finish for the last 50 meters so I tried to finish strong at least. I hit the tape in 21:20, confirming my belief that the course was long. I asked a few other guys that had GPS watches if the course was long. One guy said 3.3 and another said 3.4. So most likely confirmation. On the race website the course measures 3.22 miles. Not sure what that means. Anyway, I will have to wait another year to beat the Bear. I think if I can get a full year of training in, I will destroy the Bear.