Kickin' Asphalt

According to my Half Marathon training, today was a scheduled 5K race day. So, I signed up for the Camper Scamper 5K in Dallas, TX benefitting physically handicapped kids. I showed up and found some of my friends that had also signed up for the race. We sat around chatting and resisted the urge to join in on the Jazzercise warmup.

We stretched and kept talking. Then came the call to the start and I promptly headed to the back of the field. You know, its a mental thing. You get up front and masses of people pass and get angry because you are slowing them down. When you are in the back, not that many more can pass you and you start passing people. It was all psychological for me. Of course, I need any advantage I can get.

On to the race.It was through a very nice area of Dallas along Turtle Creek. I knew I had started out faster than normal but I stayed with my pace. I had stated to my friends before the race I was going to try to finish in less than 37:58 which is my current PR. I also said I didn't want to injure myself either.We took off and I immediately started looking for my path of least resistance from walkers/dogs/ stollers. I finally focused on one of my friends who was running at a little faster pace than I was and my goal was to keep him in sight. I get to the first mile and my Garmin beeps and shows me the time split...11:40. About a minute faster than I had originally planned. I could only think, uh oh...now I have done it. Gone out too fast. I couldn't think about it for too long because as I made the first turn, there was a massive hill to climb. So I focuse on the hill and up I went.

I hit mile two and felt surprisingly strong and thought, this could be a good race. At the 2.85 mile point, there was a girl that I had been running with pretty much the whole race...I did not know her...but evidently she was a part of a running club and her coach came back and met us at that point and began to encourage her. What they didn't realize is that I was listening too.

We come to the point where the finish line is in sight and the coach says to her..."Okay, when you hit those balloons, I want you to kick it into gear and leave this big ole dude behind."

She just kind of chuckled. Now, normally I would let stuff like that roll off my back. I have nothing to prove. But ever since I have joined Team Kickin' Asphalt, it was like a switch that went off inside of me. We hit the balloons in stride and before she could kick, I did and I think I heard her scream because of the dust I was kicking up...okay, maybe not, but I left her behind. I was sooooooo happy...I beat a girl! Okay, I was really just happy that I had enough in the tank left for a kick. I set a new PR of 36:13 which is 1:45 minutes faster than my last one.

Here were my splits.
Mile 1.....11:40
Mile 2.....11:49
Mile 3.....11:38
.13 ..... 1:06

I was soooo happy with my race today.

The Sonic Turtle

Think back to last Saturday...did you hear it? The sonic boom? That was me. I was out on the road churning out a 6.23 mile run. It was my first time to do that distance and boy was it worth it. I had never experienced the "runner's high" until about 5.5 miles. The for the next .75 miles, it was like my head was in the clouds. I couldn't believe it. I have heard of this phenomena, but had yet to experience it. It was awesome!

Easter Sunday as a great day. I got to spend it with my family. After church and the Easter Egg hunt for the kids, we headed over to my parents for some lunch with my brother and his family. My dad and brother went out back to hide eggs for the kids and we did another hunt at the house. The cool thing was, we had some confetti eggs. They were basically hollowed out egg shells with confetti inside and the hole in the egg covered with some sort of light weight paper.

With that in mind, I guess you can imagine what happened. The egg hunt quickly turned into a confetti egg war with all McMahan's involved. Of course, this was started by my darling wife, Shannon. I couldn't believe it. She launched the first egg right at the center of my back. It nailed me, yet it didn't break. The it was on! It was a free for all. Had I not dodged my head to the left quickly enough, my brother would have nailed me in my cheek with one. Fortunately, it hit my earlobe and I was able to pelt him on the back with the return volley.

The kids were kind of taken aback by the whole thing, then they joined in and started pelting each other. We new it had gone too far when someone grabbed a hard boiled egg and let it fly. Then I think I heard someone say..."The yolk is on you....hehehehehehe!" It was terribly punny. Oops, funny!

We went inside and had a smorgasbord of my mom's desserts care of "Paula Deen's Cooking for Dummies". Chocolate pie, lemon pie, coconut cake, apple pie, and of course candy. We topped off the day by watching the Masters and then each went our separate ways.

Looking back on the day, I was glad I ran my 16.3 miles for the week. It was definately an Easter to remember.