“Finish On the 50” 5k Race

Yesterday, I ran an unofficial 5k time of 28:35 finally getting me in the “sub-30” club. The course had a lot of hills, so it was challenging, but thankfully the last half mile was mostly downhill, and I could finish strong.

The event was not managed well – at 2:00pm on Sunday they have yet to post any race results. They had plenty of portable toilets, but no trash cans and no recycling cans for all the plastic bottles. They had no loudspeakers to announce the start of any of the races – 1/2 marathon, 10k, and 5k. I’m not sure I would go out of my way to run it again, but the race itself was fun. And I got a PR off a hilly course.

** Update **
My official chip time was 28:18 and I finished 6th out of 39 in my age group, 179th out of 1,021 overall!

Then this morning, my wife and I both volunteered at the inaugural Capital of Dreams Triathlon event in Montgomery. While I’m not ready now to even attempt this, it was definitely a blast to help the participants have a great time.

Now I have to start working on my pacing for my upcoming first 8k race late next month. It will be a PR no matter what, but I want to build off my 5k success and set a good record. I’m working up to my first half marathon, but have not yet determined the when/where for it.

Running In Houston

I was at a conference in Houston this last week, and found I was just blocks away from a really pretty running trail called the Buffalo Bayou Walk. It runs along the Sabine River, and under the interstates part of the way. Pretty nice, actually, you forget the shade is from roads overhead, because around you is nice and green.

I got in a nice 4 mile run one morning, with a built-in half mile warm up and cool down going back and forth from the hotel. I’ve been working on increasing my pace, hoping to do well at an upcoming 5k race.

Wow, It’s Been A Month Since I Posted Anything

A week after my last post, my wife and I took off for Bavaria to meet a new grandchild (who is adorable, but has nothing to do with fitness). The weather was hovering at zero most of the week we were there (Celsius, since we were in Germany), but I did get in a couple of nice four mile runs, out and and back on an asphalt trail that followed the river as it left town. (This photo is from last year, when the photo doesn’t look like a black and white because there are no leaves yet)

I saw the funniest thing, during my second run, but couldn’t get phone phone out to take a picture. I saw this guy, on a motorcycle, coming slowly toward me on the path, with a dog running next to him. As he got closer, I saw he had this huge bushy beard, like an old-time sailing captain in a movie. Then he got closer, and I realized he had a large blue parrot perched on his shoulder! Remember, I’m in Germany and it’s freezing, and he’s on a motorcycle with a parrot, just sitting there. It squawked at me as he went past. And I…couldn’t…get…the…picture. Oh well.

I wondered why my times were about one minute per mile slower than I had been running, and first thought it was the the fact I been running indoors a lot. But then I looked up the elevation and saw I was at 1,450 feet and I live at 300 feet elevation! So then I got happy with my speed.

Then we came back, and while I picked back up with my training routine, I found myself swamped at work – hence no posting. I have now gotten my training pace down to 9:45 minutes/mile, and can keep that pace for about 4 miles before slowing down. I have a 5k coming up the end of April, where I want to again try and break 30:00 minutes, and then an 8k in the middle of May.

I have scaled back my two weekday runs to 30 minutes, because I am beginning to spend those extra two thirty minutes doing strength training in the Wellness Center. Everything I read says “strengthen your core to run better and safer” so I am working on this. Also working on arm and shoulder fitness, to help in swimming.