Shh! Don't tell anyone else we're racing

When not blessed with blazing speed, stealth helps.

I ran the 9 on the 9th this morning. What a fantastic idea to shake off the winter doldrums. It’s nothing short of brilliant, Nancy. Thanks for your stellar performance as race director. I needed a race to get my running mojo flowing again.

It was a wee bit chilly as the Saturday morning running group gathered south of town in Grandview, Missouri. Usually the starting area before a race is filled with a little tension as the assembled racers survey the competition and fight off any last-minute mind games before the gun goes off. Everybody seemed remarkably calm today, though. They were just chatting away before the various pace groups were dispatched.

It was like they didn’t even know they were participating in a race.

Er, I guess they didn’t.

I sure wasn’t going to let them in on the secret. Some of these runners are smokin’ fast.

While running along the trail near Longview Lake I would put a runner in my sights, grind it out and pick them off at will as I cruised on by. Again, it was like they didn’t even know we were racing.

Maybe if some of those rabbits that normally line up in my 5Ks had a similarly lackadaisical attitude I might get the chance to place in my age group. Sometime before I am 70.

Toward the end of the run, I finally let my running buddy Jeff in on the news that we actually were in an officially sanctioned event. But I made sure to finish with a strong surge at the end just to make sure nobody could sneak up from behind at the last minute.

Granted, my 10:19 pace for the 10 miles (the watch said I did 9 in 1:32) was more at training pace than true race pace. But in my mind, and that’s perfectly fine considering this was a virtual race, I was flying.