Paul Thurston Burke Lake 4.5 Miler – 29:15
Less than a week prior to this event, fellow DailyMiler, Matt Lofton, asked me if I would like to join him in running the Paul Thurston Burke Lake 4.5 Miler, a nearby DC Road Runners event. I obliged, and in the days prior to the race, we (and our running friends) enjoyed a playful back-and-forth of light trash talk (tweets and DailyMile posts). And, we finally settled on an entry fee wager ($5) for the victor, where I was also to be given 2:22, since Matt is much faster than me.
PRE-RACE
Not much pre-race activity except for meeting Matt and also my co-worker (and DailyMile recruit), Ryan McGeary. By the way, my family also attended this evening event too. They had never been to any of my previous 21 races, and after this humid and low-key event, may never go to another one! 
Anyhow, after a 1/2 mile warmup with some bug swallowing, I was ready to get the race started…
RACE
The race’s 4.5 mile track around Burke Lake was mostly well-maintained trail with some added black top at the beginning and end of the route, connecting parking lots. My main goal was to keep Matt within sight to cover the 2:22 spread. I went out much easier than the way I went out in my previous Crystal City Twiligher 5K race. This time my first mile was a friendlier 5:59, according to my Garmin. And, Matt took it easy the first mile too.
There wasn’t a whole lot of passing on the trail, I must say. I did manage to pass 5 runners between miles 1.5 and 3.9. I first passed a young woman around mile 1.5, then a very young boy (12?) around mile 2. Then, slowly reined in 3 more gentlemen up to mile 3.9. I remember the 3.9 mileage because the last guy said we had a mile to go, but I didn’t correct him. I knew we had .6 to go, and was happy knowing it!
Slightly before the last pass, I could see Matt up in the distance and figured he was about a minute ahead of me. At that point, I knew I could cover the spot. And, coming down the stretch, Matt gave me lots of support yelling “Slow down, please slow down!” :-P
The race itself was somewhat uneventful, otherwise. The only thing special about it was that they had timing issues, and anyone who finished prior to 38 minutes weren’t recorded. My Garmin showed 29:15 for 4.52 miles. I later emailed this time to the group asking for missing times. Unofficial race results can be found –> here. My regressive splits were: 5:59 6:35 6:35 6:48 3:15 Oh well.
Also, here’s a TwitPic (thanks to Matt) of my winning pose:
Let it be known that I didn’t ask for the prize money after the race. I had planned on turning it down anyways, and repeatedly did so. But, Ryan said to Matt “Didn’t Andy win the bet?”, and then Matt refused to keep the cash, saying “A bet is a bet”. Oh well, we had fun with it. I guess I won’t be getting that spot next time. :-(
