Simon Says, "It's Windy"

I am a little behind in posting account summaries to the blog.  I also see that our blog is a bit inactive.  The Law Week 8K was held on Saturday March 28th.  To be honest, this is one my my least favorite of the Spring Series Runs.  Allen Parkway is a bit more difficult of a course to run than Memorial.   The run out to Shepherd seems to take forever and once you get back downtown, there is at least another 0.4 miles going into downtown and turning around to the finish line.

In addition, this race takes place during the heart of the NCAA Basketball tournament, called March Madness.  I always kick myself for getting so emotionally involved, but there is nothing I can do about.  It's ingrained in my DNA!!  My beloved Kansas Jayhawks lost a close game to Michigan State the night before the race.  The game ended about 11PM.  I watched the game with another club member who will remain nameless (but he does have a Brooklyn accent) who kept pointing out critical turnovers and missed free throws that cost the Jayhawks the game.  He did not need to tell me that because I was watching the same game!!!   But I took this loss in stride-- we are very young team, so I was not as upset as I often am before the Law Week 8K.

I think we have had beautiful weather all winter and all spring to train, but it seems like the series runs have been plagued by bad weather, and it is mainly wind.   Well, none of the previous races come close to the wind problems in this race.  I hoped to find someone to draft off of going out to Shepherd, but I never was able to avoid the wind.  There was a nice stretch right before the turnaround where we were shielded from the wind.  I felt like I was cruising for a stretch until we turned around.  

During the spring races, I have has some nice battles with Richard Verm, David Piper, Mark Fraser and Scott Bound. This competition propels us ahead when we may want to slow down.  Simon Brabo and I were running together right as we made the last turn and headed for the finish line.  That stretch of probably less than 1/4 of a mile had to be the windiest stretch I had ever run in a race.  I remember seeing the finish line, running as hard as I could, but feeling like I was not moving.   I think Simon said, "It's Windy", but I really couldn't hear or anyone else as I struggled to complete the last stretch.