Not a great day!

I knew it wasn't going to be a great day when I turned up to the race only to find the course I had run round and scoped out yesterday had been changed- again!! So that was pointless then!

Actually the race didn't go too bad. It was the 'Skyline 5k' the second race of the 'Run For Your Life' Grand Prix series. Having missed the first race five weeks back through injury I was looking forward to toeing the line again with 'the big boys'. The nice thing about this race (apart from the fast finish) is that the top three win gorgeous framed prints of the Charlotte Skyline. Having won one the first year I was here, I missed out last year by coming 4th and I had promised Lisa that I would be doing my best to bring one home today as she doesn't like the one I won before! To do that I had a feeling I would need to run sub 16 and beat Chris Lamperski.....

Marchinko was there, monster of the roads, 4 time GP winner and a nice 1.09 half marathon under his belt two weeks ago. Tim was in, my training partner and part time guru/coach/chauffeur, ready to knock some rust off before heading to Duke for a big track meet next week. Lamperski, who beat me into 3rd in the GP last year and has been in hiding doing some great training. And Robert Miller, 5th in the GP last year, who always seems to finish either one place ahead of me or behind me depending on who is having a good day!

True to form, the five of us took it out. I just settled into a pace I thought I could hold for the race and noone else wanted to take it on so I actually found myself leading the group, which was a little unusual! Approaching the first mile mark (first mile was pretty much all uphill) the clock was obviously ticking a little slower than the rest of the boys wanted, so Marchinko jumped straight past me, taking Tim and Chris with him and leaving Miller and I fighting our own battle. I went through the mile in 5.18 which was fairly slow but I wasn't too concerned as the hardest part was done.

Second mile was 5.08. This mile was mainly downhill but included a short sharp hill that sapped the energy out of you. At this point Marchinko was pulling clear, Tim and Chris were slugging it out and Robert was just behind me. Now the last mile is fairly fast so i was thinking if I could bring home a 5 minute mile I still had a pop at the sub 16. However, although I felt pretty strong the 'pop' wasn't there and I couldn't gain on Chris uphead in 3rd and Miller was catching me too. "Sorry Lisa" I was thinking at this point! Miller came past me with about 400 meters to go but I was pretty confident I would take him again on the last hill and so it proved. Mile 3 was 5.14 and I came home 4th in 16.12. Interestingly, the top 5 finished in the same order they did in the whole GP series last year. Also Chris had run 16.02 so my pre race prediction was spot on.

So warmed down with Tim and hung around for the race awards. Tim had his Blackberry so I immediately had to find news of the Chelsea Man U game that was going on at that time. The news was good. We were holding them 1-1 and only a few minutes to go. The title was practically ours. Then the three winners went off and got their prints and partook in a seemingly endless photo session. By the time Tim got back he refreshed the news feed. Disaster! Chelsea had grabbed a late late winner and thrown the title race wide open again. With two games to go we are level on points with Chelsea but have a superior goal difference so the destiny is still in our own hands. That's why I love and hate football though. Last week I was jumping around the house like a madman celebrating our own late late goal, this week I'm depressed!

So not a very happy chappy today! Have friends coming round later for pizza and beers so i'd better cheer myself up for them! Then my designated driver is picking me up and we are going to shoot some pool. Hopefully after all that I'll be in a better mood!