As I mentioned in the previous post, my dad and I ran the City to City 2 years ago and were so excited they decided to bring it back! A different running group took over and that's how they were able to do it. The City to City is a 9.2 mile race/relay. You can run it as a single person, 2 man team or a 3 man team. My dad and I have always run it as a 2 man team - he runs the first leg (3 miles) which has quite a few big hills, and I run the second 2 legs (6.2 miles). It's a nice course full of hills and mostly on roadways (meaning little shade), but the end is on a concrete man made trail that runs by a river and next to a forest.
The race starts in Jackson at the health club, and starts up the hill to main street (ugh), so I always dread that for my dad because I hate hills, but he is a trooper and loves it. It was a bit chilly that morning but the sun was out and we knew it would heat up - meaning it was a great morning for a run. Mom was our driver and her and I watched dad take off at the start, and we headed out to the exchange point.
At the exchange we met up with a friend of ours (Kelly) who was also running the second leg for his team and he kept poking fun at me that I would beat him. We saw dad coming down the hill and I took off before Kelly did. I paced myself with a group of people (I was about 30-45 seconds behind them but kept my distance running about 7:45-8:00 min miles). I knew that I had 6 miles to run so I slowed down a bit and was passed by Kelly at mile 2, but he was almost done, while I had more to go. I was feeling alright (hating the few big hills I had though and still feeling that groin pull) when I passed the exchange. I saw my parents up ahead before I turned into the neighborhood and it was just what I needed to keep me up. I was getting tired and was ready to be done and walk, but I couldn't let my dad down.
In the neighborhood we go onto the trail, so I knew I was getting close to the end and was catching up to a guy, and knew I could beat him. Slowly, but surely I passed him, and I saw my next target - a lady I had been running near the whole race and really wanted to pass. When I saw the finish line I sped up a bit and thought I could get her, but of course she sped up too. I passed one more woman at before the finish line and ended with 8:15 min miles.
I was hurting, but proud of finishing strong. They had the times from 2 years ago with them and we were about 30 seconds slower than before, (which could have been both of our faults). We still did awesome, and won our division, which isn't hard since they add ages together to make the brackets...
I hope they keep this race, it's always fun and a challenging course.
Peace, Love and Running 🏃
#seejessrun #runtheyear2017 #runningwithoutlimits
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