DoppelLaufer Challenge Results

The results are in and the winner is:

Don

Jim had victory ripped from his grasp by a mere two seconds.

Yours truly managed a personal record, and met his goal of breaking 24 minutes but came in a distant 3rd.

The final times were:

Don: 22:19 

Jim: 22:21

Bob: 23:58

We all had a blast with this virtual race and plans are already underway for a rematch.

Track Shack put on a great event with the Celebration of Running. There were 1538 finishers, I came in 226 overall and 19th in my age division.

The start/finish was located at Loch Haven Park in Orlando, which is one of the cultural centers of town (yes, there is some culture in Orlando). The park is surrounded by the Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando Science Center, the Mennollo Museum of American Art and the Orlando Shakespeare Theater. The lake front park is shaded by ancient, massive Oak Trees (so no there weren’t any palm fronds to hurdle, Jim) and full of sculptures.

Track Shack did a great job with organization, the facilities were great, results were posted quickly and race photos were even available on line by the end of the day.

I would have liked more substantial food offerings after the race. We were offered water, Accelerade, Smoothies, bananas, rice crispy treats and chips. I would have killed for a bagel. The smoothies were awesome, especially with the heat. I chugged one too many and gave myself brain freeze.

The race went pretty much according to plan. My splits were 7:49, 7:47 and 7:34. I managed negative splits but I thought I would be able to improve a little more than that with each mile. By my watch my time was 24:01 at the finish. I had about 15 agonizing minutes during which I believed I had missed my goal by one second until they started posting official results.

It ain't pretty, but this is the look of exhaustion and agony, taken right after finishing.

I was sweating so much after the race that I think I may have ruined my cell phone. Shortly after taking this picture the lens fogged up and the camera was useless. I searched desperately for something dry to wipe it off but I was out of luck, it was just too humid. A few minutes later the volume controls started malfunctioning, constantly adjusting the volume, and all I could do was turn it off. A day later, it’s still malfunctioning. I can only hope it gets better after a few days of drying out or I may have to replace it.

I celebrated my PR with a 10 mile run this morning. I was worried about this run after the race yesterday, but it went really well. I finished strong with an average pace of 9:47 and an 8:46 final mile.