Speed work!

Today's 5K was run under a heavy thick fog. It was nice greeting and being greeted by my fellow co-workers. And good to see our trainers happy face as we gathered for his first organized race. Our CFO was there and he's fast, for an old guy. Steve is 51 so he was my competition. The race was billed as slightly over 5K at 3.25 miles. Steve wasn't sure how that would affect his 5K pace calulations. All I wanted to do was keep him in sight and hope I have enough kick at the end to give me a chance to catch him. The majority of the 120 or so folks registered were going to walk/run. A few of us were racing the 3 lap course!
The rabbit lead us on the first lap. I hung with Steve for about 3 hundred yards then settled in to my pace. First loop complete and the clock read 6:40. Faster than I wanted to run. One of the two guys ahead of third place Steve faded off on the second loop but another guy came up behind me and surged ahead. End of second loop, clock read 13:35. One hundred yards into the third loop and Steve kicked it into another gear. I couldn't even think about it. I had no kick left in me. The guy who had passed me on loop two couldn't catch Steve either. I hung on trying to stay in fourth place. At the end the clock read 20:50. Good race! That's as speedy as I get. My previous PR at 5K was 22:50, 15 years ago. Steve's time was 19:54. But, he said, It was only 2.89 miles according to his Garmin. That threw a wrench into Steve's ever calculating mind.
I heard some interesting comments on a podcast about the aging athlete today.
The two things that stood out and remain in my head are, "Don't fall for all the hype as far as new training techniques or nutrition findings. Find what works best for you, listen to your body"
Another guest speaker said "Don't try to emulate the movie stars methods for staying young. age gracefully, work with what you got."
I like it!