THIS is why I run

THIS is why I run
2012 Chicago Half Marathon Finish with Sara and Jacob

Sunday, August 12, 2012

5K Results - Better Than Expected

Results of yesterday's 5K were encouraging.  The race started at 7:00 am, so I decided to get up at 5:45, and run from my house to the race - about 3.5 miles.  After the race, I would run home and count it as a decent day of work.

Fortunately, the morning was cool, about 62 F when I left the house.  I took a leisurely approach to the run TO the race but when I got there, realized that I averaged about 9:15 per mile, leaving me about 30 minutes to hang around before the race.

The race itself was a small, local affair with about 400 finishers.  The route took us over mainly paved trails that I have run before so there weren't any real surprises.  A few hills but nothing that I hadn't run before.  I got caught behind the inevitable baby strollers, friends running 5 abreast, and walkers for the first mile or so and since the route was fairly narrow, I figure I wasted at least a minute trying to negotiate my way to open running.  No complaints here - these folks have just as much right to run as I do and if I was really serious, I would have wormed my way to the front.  All in all, it was well organized and everyone seemed to have a good time.

I finished in 23:49, 64th overall and 4th in my age group, averaging somewhere around 7:39 per mile.   A minute faster would have moved me to 50th but still 4th in the age group.  Truthfully, I don't know if I would have been able to run home after running 7 minute miles, so let's not even consider woulda, shoulda and coulda.

The run home was fine, slow and allowed a pretty good recovery.  No pains, no aches and no regrets this morning, either.

Running is fun again...

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