AM - Burt met me at 6:15, and we headed off to Papago Park to the first of the Arizona Road Racers summer race series. We got there with plenty of time, and I picked up my bib and timing chip. This race is the only one of the series that employs a age and gender handicap, where you start a certain number minutes after the gun to avoid congestion, and the entire race is timed by chip time instead of clock time. My age group handicap was 13:52. After running nice easy 1.5 mile warmup, I got in line and waited to get going. There were a lot more people there this year as opposed to last year, so it was more crowded than before. Time for the race was 19:00 flat, with splits below. Mile 1 - 5:53 - I hit 5:10 pace during this first mile at some point, which probably did me in. This mile was also the craziest, with my having to slow down and speed up multiple times due to the sheer number of slower runners in front of me. Mile 2 - 6:15 - on this mile, which included the turnaround, I realized that I was not going to reach my goal of sub-18:00, because I was already struggling, and I decided to slow it down a bit. Mile 3 - 6:13 - This mile included a nice downhill where I actually hit 4:50 pace, otherwise it would have been a bit slower. Final 0.11 - :38 - 5:28 average pace, and I hit 4:40 pace during my kick. I ended up 36th overall and 6th in my age division. In retrospect, I am pretty happy with this result given that last week I missed the entire week except Monday due to sickness, and it was also very humid today, even though the weather was pretty nice. Burt did a great job getting a new PR in the 5K, so congratulations to him. On a side note, Olympic hopeful Sara Slattery was in the race. The announcer said she still held the all-time HS state record in the mile at 4:48. I saw her coming back while I was heading out and didn't recognize her at the time, but heard her yell at the runners crowding the other lane to move. She was booking it, and ended up being the first overall finisher in spite of the handicap. | 