The New Season Begins

Welcome back, running fans!

I can't believe it's been exactly six months since the last post. Time flies when you're being lazy, I guess. There really hasn't been much to post over the winter though: running around the tracks at either Rec Hall or the IM Building is quite literally nothing to write home about. I mean, it was boring doing it, let alone writing about it, let alone reading about it.

But running season resumed today with the Coaches vs. Cancer 5k. I wasn't even sure I was going to do it. I spent quite a bit of time and energy yesterday mountain biking, and as my lovely wife will attest I was very, very tired. And this morning it was so nice sleeping in. Good thing this wasn't an 8 am race.

But once I got up and moving, I decided to go ahead and give it a try. My original goal for this, the first race of the season (well, my season anyway), was around 23:30. But owing to my fatigue from the day before, I just wanted to run nice and easy, and get in under 24 minutes.

It was a beautiful morning, cloudless blue skies, and not too cold. And this is one of the bigger 5K's in Centre County. So the turn-out was huge: I was number 814, and there were people behind me in line to register. So there's this vast throng at the starting line, and I got boxed in a little, and I pushed the pace a little to make up for that time.

It turned out I pushed the pace a lot: I ran the first mile in 7:10, which is way faster than I had wanted to go out. From here, it was just a question of holding on, keeping the feet turning through that long, mostly uphill 2nd mile. I got that done in 7:55. Finally, up the hill to the library, and the turn for the last mile. Try as I might, I just could not find the other gear that I usually have in the finish, and I ran the last 1.1 miles in almost exactly 8 minutes.

For those of you who don't feel like adding it up in your head, that put my finishing time around 23:10. (I didn't stick around for the official results, I'll post 'em when I get em). That is my 2nd-best 5K time since my return to running. It works out to a pace of 7:28 per mile. My goal for the season to get under 7-minute-mile pace. I may need to make a more ambitious goal.

Next up is the Kinesiology Club 5K on the 24th. I'm hoping that my lovely wife will run it with me, and I hope to see you all there as well.