The fast guys stayed home: How I placed in my age group

I was a shoo-in to run a PR during this morning's Three Amigos 4 Mile Run held by the Fort Worth Runners Club.

I was a shoo-in because I'd never run a 4-mile race before.

Still, I wasn't feeling so good about a "respectable" time. My legs were dead because on Saturday, I ran 6 miles, with the last four in 8:04; 7:43; 7:41; and 8:05. It was six miles of what had been a 32-mile week.

Also Saturday: I hung out with some runners at the pool and drank three beers. And Saturday night: I drank four glasses of wine at the going-away party of three of my former co-workers who were laid off.

So when I climbed out of bed at 6:45 Sunday morning, needless to say, I wasn't feeling so great.

Still, I set a goal of 29 minutes, or a 7:15 minute mile.

And right out of the gate, I made a pacing mistake. I ran the first mile like I was running a 5K. A 6:51 mile isn't so bad when you've only got 2.1 miles to go. But I still had three miles to go, and as the miles went on, Saturday's merriment and all the running I did the previous seven days began taking its toll.

I slowed down and ran mile 2 in 7:18.

Mile 3 was even slower: 7:24. I got to the 5k point in the race in 22:20 (7:12 minute mile) and knew it'd be a struggle to finish 4 miles in under 29 minutes because I was fading.

But I stepped on the gas as I could hear footsteps behind me getting closer and closer. I ran the last 3/10 of a mile in exactly two minutes.

My Garmin said I ran 4.04 miles, and it said I crossed the four-mile mark in 28:54.

But.....

This was one of those races without timing chips. I started in the middle of the pack and when I finished they pointed at me, yelled a time, gave me a card and told me to write the time down and hand it to one of the race assistants.

Official time: 29:10.

Even though I didn't meet my goal, I feel like I would have done much better if not for so much drinking the day before. A slight taper (not running so hard the day before) would have also helped.

But there was one consolation prize: I won 2nd place in my age group, 35-39.

Guess all the really fast guys in my age group stayed home.