First of all, sorry about the ridiculous delay in posting here again. The rest of the weekend was crazy...no cell phone reception (don't go to Northern Wisconsin if you have Sprint) and I didn't really have any time anyway. The second leg of my flight back was cancelled so I didn't get home til Monday, and I never have time for anything during the week (I work 10 hours a day M-Th).
I don't know how I can prove that a race actually occurred--there were no spectators unless you count the high school soccer and tennis team practices. What I can do is prove I exist. Here's my Twitter account:
https://twitter.com/LukeTheRunner
which has been around since I believe 2006, and I'll upload a picture of my return plane tickets. If you think I flew to and from Chicago and, rather than race a guy, made up a story about doing so, well, I don't know what to tell you. That would be the weirdest, most hilariously pointless trolling of all time.
Anyway, AR summarized the race pretty well; I will just add a couple things from my point of view. When I met him I got nervous about losing, since I was pretty much expecting a 50-year-old (he told me after the race that he'd expected a D1-college, sub-14 guy). Definitely was worried when he took it out hard, but I reminded myself that he had first suggested a 1000m race, so chances were he didn't have a ton of endurance. Stayed close for the first half mile, and after the hill (which was a lot steeper than it looks in the picture he uploaded) on the way out I noticed I'd gotten a step on him so I told myself "have to go now" and made a hard move. After that I just maintained the gap as best I could. In the last half-mile I started to get a sideache--I hadn't gotten a sideache in at least a year, but I hadn't had nearly enough water in the car. Around the last couple turns I was able to look back to make sure he didn't run me down. Whatever I had left was enough, but I did hurt for a bit after I finished.
Thanks again for the race, AR. I didn't end up going to Jalisco's afterward, because my stomach wasn't feeling great and I wanted to get back on the road.
If anyone is passing through Eugene and wants to race me, I'm always up for it. You all know how fast (slow) I am now, but on my "home course" I think I could take on almost anyone.