Running of the Achoo Leopards - Dave Taylor

Maybe it was the fact that my lungs were still full of mucus, or maybe I shouldn't have hung with the front guys for a 62 quarter and a 2:15 800 at the start, but I did not do good today. Well OK I didn't do bad, but I was 14 seconds slower than 2 years ago where I expected to by 14 seconds faster. Anyway, once I had burned through the first mile is free thing (about .66) I noticed that I was having a horrible time clearing lactic. It was so bad that my arms were tired. I came around the first corner to the uphill and got past mile 1 at 5:05 with Jason and just died. Well I felt like I died but I was still under 6 mostly. I figured I would back off a little and try to clear the lactic out somewhat. It kind of worked, but I couldn't bring myself to go slow enough for it to REALLY work. So I got a 5:43 second mile. By that time we were in the long downhill and I just tried to keep it moving. I did OK, even going under 5 at the end on the track, but the third mile was still 5:33 and the last bit ended up at 5:16. The 1st place masters guy passed me when I was being slow and he didn't look over 40 so I let him get 7 seconds ahead. Big mistake. My lungs will be more clear at the next race. 2nd masters, 11th overall.