And The Good Lord Said,Come Fourth

Final outdoor race of the 2011 season and were it not for the Armory Holiday meet on Dec 26th{or Boxing Day as I knew it growing up} my season finale.
As I stated for the record in my previous blog entry I'd never had much luck at this race but I always said it would be nice to come into the Delaware Open w/ a good level of training under my belt,post Nationals I've logged eleven 50 mile training weeks{2 were actually 53 mile weeks} so even though I've eased off the gas a little in the weeks either side of The Bridge Run I felt coming into my first Delaware open since 08 that I was ready to set the record straight.

Starter for ten,who ordered the great weather?most of my memories of this race which is always ran the Saturday after Thanksgiving are of freezing my arse off,not this year sunny and warm,not sure of the official temps at 11am but it was singlet and shorts weather,no gloves or arm warmers today.
Pre race I jogged the new course,eighty sixing the creek and halving Maintenance Hill suited moi and the new finish meant a serious downhill to the finish line,yeah I could live w/ this!!

In a field of almost 100{official results show 99 finishers} I got out to a good start,Matt Sandercock took off like he'd been listening to Meatloaf......"Bat Out Of Hell" and the field gave chase I eased my way into 5th very early on and never looked back.
5.32 at the mile marker Matt was gone Greg Watson followed and though I didn't realise it at the time 3rd and 4th place runners Tim Suchler and Mark Kamaway were team mates from Inside Track.
I moved into 3rd as we cut back on to Maintenance Hill roughly half way up it,it's still a beast hill but I was moving well,could I really be 3rd???was this some sort of dream? 8th was best ever showing in 08,what about the lunatic who ran a 5 Mile Turkey Trot 2 days b4 his 05 Brandywine debut and was toast after the opening mile and finished 16th in 19.43.3?who in 06 finished 14th but in 20.05.0? or who finished 8th in 07 in 19.02.2?? or 9th in 07 in 19.10.6?.....well if this was a dream,don't wake me!!!!!

Freewheeling the downhill off Maintenance I closed some ground on Greg Watson but he opened up a lead on me I could never reclaim,Greg's tough,how tough? routinely each year he runs both the Masters and open races which are half an hour apart,if he's lucky he gets 10 mins recovery....and I think I'm hot shit cos I jog the course after the race as my cool down run!!
No clock or marker for 2 miles,along the long stretch that's known as Suicide I had Tim Suchler and Mark Kamaway breathing down my neck,I could've said feck it 5th is better than I've ever managed here go ahead chaps......but that really would be a dream so I hunkered down and dug deep.
Tim got me but I was hell bent on retaining 4th and using the downhill to the finish line I put daylight between Mark and myself,4th in 18.29.9. a 5.57 per mile average and finally a Delaware Open 5K XC race to be proud of.

There's a healthy debate amongst us who've ran both courses as to which is the tougher, the old course or the new course,I never broke 19 on the only course,then again I never came into Brandywine State Park w/ a slew of 50 mile training weeks under my belt either so I guess the debate will be ongoing.
It's been an up and down season after my 15.47.3. indoor 5,000m in mid January I felt a kick arse season was on tap but little did I know that anmenia was about to derail my hopes and dreams,the low point of my season was my 4.54 mile at West Chester on June 3rd from there there was only one direction and that was up and slowly but surely {or in my case surly!!}I've been clawing my way back,there's some signs of life now as I close out the year so I just have to keep doing what I'm doing,maybe fine tune a little bit here and there and who knows what's on tap in 2012?