This is a brand new race put on by the Able Club of Lugoff-Elgin High school, their athletic booster club, to honor two of their longtime supporters (Rob Evans and Joey Dorton) who recently passed away. Proceeds went to a scholarship fund in their memory.

I originally had See Spot Run on my calendar this weekend, but the Diesels were helping promote this race, so I had to support the Sunday morning marathon training wolfpack. Although I love me some See Spot, this race met key trophy hunting criteria as well – first time event, relatively rural, and of course competing with a more competitive, established race. I admit, I had some grandiose beliefs that it could be a holy grail (i.e. first overall) opportunity. At the very least, I knew it would be a chance to redeem myself against Trophy, who so unceremoniously dropped my ass at the Palmetto Half. It was on like Donkey Kong.

Pale Beast had already declared he was See Spotting it, thus avoiding another episode of the Pale and the Clydesdale-ish. I showed up way early because I always overestimate how much time it takes to get to the Kershaw County area. It was even faster than downtown Columbia from the casa de Blue Shoes in the northeast.

Jordan and Jen Lybrand were already on site when I got there. Luckily Jordan was working the SR timing, because the dude can smoke a sub 18 5k these days in his sleep. A few minutes later I see Bedenbaugh show up, so holy grail hunt was officially over. Coach B may come and go with his training and injuries but since he is a Columbia racing legend, he can pretty much crush me whenever the mood strikes him. Whitney Keen and his wife Caroline showed up a little later, thus ensuring at least a three way battle for second place. Chad and Betsy Long, Jennifer Reeves and of course all the Diesels were on hand. Diesel was on Brady pacing duty while Jen was wussing out and spectating. I punished her with picture duty so I could have plenty of facebook-worthy shots of my giant melon and ridiculous photo hogging.

Did a lap of the Lugoff Elgin high school grounds with J-Lybrand and the Trophy. I confessed I had done an unthinkable and not even looked up the course. Hope it was going to be well-marked. Diesel said it was fairly flat, but maybe he was colluding with Trophy to take my giant ego down a notch. The finish at least looked cool, since it ended on the LE track inside the stadium.

With the start, I figured it was probably going to be Coach B and the rest of the field chasing him, unless one of the many LE kids was some cross country stud. By the time we left the high school grounds though, some girl is torching the field already. Then I heard someone say it was Heather Costello, who basically can hold her own with any of the top females in Columbia. Guess it would be a fight for third. Or not..because there is still quite a bit of traffic in front of me a half mile in. I dont know any of these guys, though most are teenagers and one random guy in a singlet. On top of that, Trophy and Whitney are jockeying back and forth right beside me and I’m starting to feel like death before mile 1. This is not a good sign.  And we are going downhill forever, which I know we’ll have to make up in this loop course. Costello is destroying us and Bedenbaugh is way up ahead as we near the mile marker. Since we’re way behind, and there are still a few randoms ahead of me, I figure I must be going really slow and this is just going to be a bad day-which sucks because the weather is so nice and my training is going well and…BEEP..MILE 1 6:03.  And expletive number one for the day is dropped. OK, so some of this is because of the long downhill, but in any case this is pretty speedy for my post-Kauai self.

I think everybody just blew up after the mile marker because all of a sudden I surge ahead of the entire pack. The downhill has ended and some inclines start popping up. I have a sense that Whitney and Trophy were nearby initially but then it gets very quiet. Mile 2 seems to take forever and there are a couple of long straight stretches that kill my motivation. Thankfully the course is very well marked so at least I dont have to think too much about navigation. Plus, I can still see Bedenbaugh and even Costello at times. I’m able to keep up close to the same effort from the first mile, but the hills drag me down to 6:15. Mile 3 is just brutal. No major hills, just my sasquatch body is having trouble paying back the oxygen debt from that frisky first mile. I zone out for a while as I jump on the pain train and go for a ride. Just when I think I’m toast I get a jolt of adrenaline when I see Coach B start to get reeled back in a little bit. Maybe I can catch him!  He must be deathly ill or injured, but believe me, I’ll take first male- especially over a beast like Mark. No shame in getting chicked by Costello either. Bedenbaugh decides he’s had enough fooling around though, and he’s not going to let some melon headed sasquatch take him down. He ramps up a kick and I’m no longer making ground on him. At some point I realize I have no idea where we are or where the finish is, and I take a look down and see 2.77 miles. Holy crap, time to throw down! Finally we make a turn and I see the start area. In my oxygen deprived fog, I totally forget about the track finish and start looking for the clock. I’m in a world of hurt when I see Bedenbaugh turn into the stadium. Oh jeez, I dont know if i can make another 300 meters. But as soon as I hit the track its like Team Utopia monday nights , so it seems oh so familiar to be gasping for dear life on an orange oval. As I hit the last straight I’m really bummed by the time already in the 19:30’s. WTH? Did I really slow down that much in the last mile? I make one last headless chicken blast and finish in 19:48. I hit the Garmin and it shoots back 3.2 miles. Well, that explains it. The course is certified, so I know its legit – probably just one of those longish ones. I was all over the place on the course since I didnt know where I was going , but two other people had 3.2 also. Oh well. I had a 6:11 pace per Garmin, so around 19:18ish for 3.11. 3rd overall, 2nd male, 1st in AG. I’ll take it!

Heather Costello took the overall and female win in 19:08, with Coach B taking the men’s win in 19:35. In the (very weird) age groups, Brady ran a 24:31 at age 9 to take 2nd in the 2-14. Garrick Douglas took 1st in the 25-34 just a few steps ahead of Jennifer Lybrand, who won the female 25-34 and 2nd female overall. Monica Frazier took 3rd. Whitney and Trophy took 2nd and 3rd in the 35-44, while Race to Read director Betsy Long won the women’s division. Sharon Cole took the 45-54 in a very competitive group – third was 26 minutes. Sorry J-Reeves.

Bummer I have to miss Jailbreak next week because of a wedding (don’t these people consult my race schedule first??), but I’m signed up for Run Red Bank on May 31. See ya then.

http://www.strictlyrunning.com/RESULTS/14PRESSBOX.TXT

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/501073299

http://www.usatf.org/events/courses/maps/showMap.asp?courseID=SC14025DW