4 on the 4th (Keene, NH)

July 4th: Woke up at 6:15am. Boiled some water for my one instant packet of maple and brown sugar oatmeal. Ate it. Decided to occupy myself with some cleaning of dishes while people were slowly getting up and making their breakfasts. We all walked over to the start of the race (Railroad Tavern) at around 7ish. Met up with some Keenyans like Big George, Fyffe, and Hammett. Warmed up 2.5 miles at 7:45. We did the first mile of the course then took a left on Eastern Ave back down Water Street. Tossed the flats on, headed on over to the starting line, did some strides, stretched the IT band real good, and toed the line. Tim and I went out like a bat out of hell for the first half mile, settled in and we had a huge group at mile 1 at 5:00. I didn't know what shape I was truly in because the last time I raced was Northfield Mountain 5 weeks ago. My goal was to break 20 minutes so I knew the next mile was mostly downhill. I put in a decent surge and broke up the big pack over the next mile. Fyffe and Sam Duncan (kid from Umass Amherst that is one of Tim's customers and has chilled with us a couple times) stuck with me and Tim was close to follow. Once we rounded 2 miles, Duncan got a gap on us a little and continued to widen it over the next mile. I don't wear watches for races, so I don't know 2 mile or 3 mile splits. I am gonna find them out somehow. I did know we kept on picking up the pace each half mile. With a mile to go, I made a conscious effort to try to close the gap and Fyffe gave me "words of encouragement" as I passed him. AKA some barks and yells. It worked. We had some things said back and forth (like latch on to me and let's bring it in), which ended up having Fyffe stick with me until the final stretch. He blew past me with 300 to go, and I cruised in for a sub 1940 finish. The results had me at 1940 flat, but I saw 1938 when I crossed the line. Great race overall. Very pleased and it is a 35 second improvement from last year. Cooled down with some of the guys behind Main Street. Got back. Ate my Balance Bar and finished my Powerade. Made our way over to the awards table, where I got a $25 gift card for Ted's for 2nd place in my age group. Also I won a $50 dollar gift certificate to Athen's pizza and a free haircut to Carl Roberts. The reason behind was not that they pulled my name out, but I was being very "vocal" during the raffle. It worked. Called up Pete Thomas to see if could stop by his office. I jogged over and we caught up on my internship, Kimber, and running. He drove me back to Fowler. I chilled there with Goup until we drove over to Hammet's at 12:15. Stopped to grab some beer and a slice of pizza at the gas station. Hammet's was just as awesome as last year. We played this washers game (similar to horseshoes), the dogs were there (4 of them that go on the 15-20 mile long runs with us), delicious food (key lime pie with blueberries), and we went swimming in Pisgah State Park (jumped off this huge rock and swam across to the other side and back). Head out earlier than last year to hit up Titus' for the rest of the night. Ordered some 555 Dominoes and managed to eat an entire pepperoni pizza. Slept on the futon to rest up for The Clearing the next day.