This is the front of the pack. I actually got in there after snapping this pic. I'm an idiot.

Cliff notes version:
Goal was anything under 40 minutes. Finished in 39:04. Yay me!

The longer version that is much more fun to read because it has really long run-on sentences that can waste a large portion of your day:
I’ve had my eye on this race for a few weeks, because I thought it would be a good chance to test whether or not the tempo runs I’ve been doing since the first of the year have had any positive effect. I’ve been pretty sure that I was getting a little faster, but like they say, if you haven’t done it in a race, you really don’t know.

When I got up and was getting ready on race day, I started having real doubts about whether or not I was going to get anything under 40:00. Even though I had run a 4 mile tempo run at a “better than hoped for” pace a couple of weeks earlier, I hadn’t had a tempo run feel as good as that one since, and the more recent ones had even been a little slower.

If you log stalk me over at Running Ahead, you’ll see that I’m making a concerted effort – perhaps for the first time – to train my body to not only run fast, but to run fast farther. That’s been the reason for the tempo runs, and this was going to be my first real “game day” taste. I’ve had a growing concern that I might be one of the “practice great, play terrible” guys who could knock out pretty decent weekly mileage but never translate that into the expected race results. One of the users over at RA (thanks, L Train) suggested that tempo runs could help and even went so far as suggesting that my first 2 marathon times and training thus far were similar to his. Since he’s qualified for Boston with a marathon time that’s over an hour faster than mine, I listened.

Anyway, enough of that rambling. I got to the race at Catawba College in time to get my bib (#190) and went out for a 2 mile warm up. Best part of the pre-race stuff was bumping into a friend who had run the race twice before and was able to give me some tips. Best advice? First 3 miles are steadily uphill and the flashing light at mile 3 means you’re downhill and flat to the end. Turned out to be a godsend, because the hills were brutal and knowing when they’d end saved me mentally.

Lining up at the start was different, because instead of going to the back like I usually do, I went about 8 lines deep and started towards the front. Talked with a guy who was running it for the first time, too, and was also targeting a sub-40 finish. I suggested we run together and he agreed, but at the start he went out around 7:10 pace, and said “I’m not too good at pacing” so I let him go. Mile 1- 7:42.

One of the things that blows my mind about the people I consider faster runners is their ability to talk in a race. I can talk during a training run, but in something like a 5k I can’t imagine trying to have any kind of conversation, so color me surprised when I struck one up with a guy somewhere in the 3rd mile. I couldn’t believe that we were talking about how he hadn’t run much in the past week or so do to being sick, but I could tell he was strong, and I was feeling pretty good, too. He pushed on up a little ahead of me, and I was cool with that because I was right on target for a sub-40. Miles 2 and 3 went by in 7:59 and 8:03. Slower, but with all the hills (which you can see in the elevation profile below), I still felt good.

As I got to the flashing light that signaled the beginning of the end, I came up on the left side of the bad pacer, and we ran together for about a quarter of a mile until he said he’d need to walk a bit and for me to go on, which I did. My only regret about the race now is that I didn’t get more out of the downhill portion from the light on. But, I finished up mile 4 in 7:46 and was all smiles for about another quarter mile until I saw the hill that my friend had NOT TOLD ME ABOUT, and it was a monster. By the time I’d gotten to the end of it, I found myself walking within sight of the lights at Shuford Stadium where the race ended with a lap around the track. I probably walked about 10 seconds before I told myself that you don’t walk THAT CLOSE to the end, and so I was off again.

One last left turn into the parking lot, followed by a downhill sprint and I was on the track. One of the nicer touches at this small race was that they called out your name as you finished, and as I rounded the last curve, I heard the announcer say someone’s name and that they were going to break 39 minutes. Hearing that got me moving even faster, and I tore down the last 100 meters somewhere around a 6:00 pace. It was cool to hear “Paul Jenkins, from New London” as I crossed the finish line. Last mile (really .98)- 7:36 for a finish time of 39:04.

After the race I tried to find Ryan, the guy who had trouble with the fast start, to see if he’d gotten a sub-40. No success getting with him after the race, but I did see in the official results that he came in with a 40:43. Hated that for him, and just goes to show how important pacing is, especially in shorter races. I’m thankful to people who have taught me that, and it felt good to have a goal and break it.

Not quite an Olympic Stadium, but Shuford Stadium was nice and the track was the same distance around.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
– George Bernard Shaw

1 Peter 1:18b-19
You were bought, not with something that ruins like gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, who was like a pure and perfect lamb.

All the gold commercials on TV crack me up, especially the one that’s been around forever with the woman basically drooling as she touches all the gold around her and slowly says “Geyold” as if saying it more pronounced would make it even shinier. The new batch of gold commercials follow a different theme, though. The lavish lady was meant to appeal to the ultra-wealthy, but the ones that run now are meant to appeal to anyone who is freaked out about the current economy.

“Buy gold because it will keep you financially secure even when the world’s entire financial structures coming crashing around you and people decide that gold isn’t worth any more than dirt! Hurry! Don’t wait! Gold is your lifeline!”

Don’t think for a second that I’m writing this from a financial perspective, so if you’ve got gold or are considering purchasing some, that’s a conversation you may want to have with a financial guy. I’m not him. My point is that it struck me funny that Peter told the people he was writing to that their faith wasn’t bought with what we’d consider an expensive commodity. Basically, he told them that they weren’t bought with junk that would break and rot and fade away, because their salvation mattered a whole lot more than that. They were going through a lot of crap at the time, and my guess is that they felt like crap. But Peter was showing them a powerful truth: the value of something is not determined by the thing itself, but rather by how much another values it.

Your value does not come from what you have or haven’t done. That’s how we value ourselves and others. Been a good citizen? Your value goes up. Been a real jerk? Value goes down. But in those scenarios, we’re the ones valuing ourselves, and so it’s still about us. But in God’s economy, He sees us as valuable because He knows the price that was paid for us, and that alone changes everything we think we know about a value system.

Consider picking up a pen and holding it, writing with it, seeing how familiar it looks to a Bic pen. You might even start to chew on the top as if you were back in grammar school. You aren’t wrong, of course, to do any of those things, especially since we both know what a Bic pen costs. But how would things change if you found out who the owner of that pen was and how much he had paid for it? If you were told that Donald Trump, bad hair and all, had bought it for 1 million dollars?

For our purposes here, can we simplify that answer to one thing? You would pause. You would think and wonder. You would ask anyone who might know about the history of that pen, because you would know that there has to be more to the story. Heck, even if you stole it to put it on eBay, you’d market it with “Donald Trump’s $1 Million Pen.”

We treat each other like dollar bin Bic pens, because, well, that’s pretty much what we were. Until a King bought us with the most valuable commodity ever – the blood of His Son – and changed everything. Or, at least, it should.

You’ll be around people today who look like ordinary Bic pens. But look closer and see if perhaps they have been made more valuable by the Owner who bought them. Pause. Think and wonder. Ask them about their history, because everyone has a story.

And give thanks for a King who sees more in us than we ever thought possible.