Horrible night of sleep. Didn't actually pass out until after 11 and then was woken up by crazy cats and dogs (it was a fullmoon) at about 4:15am. Had a onion bagel and some coffee with Heidi before she left for work, then I hopped on the Cannondale and made my way up to the race start.
A mini-riparian refuge fed by canals.
After locking my backpack and bike to a tree root I took off for about a 20 minute warmup jog. This race was pretty small but the course was hilly so there was a bit of a challenge to it. Anyways we took off and started my watch as I crossed the start line (the race wasn't chip-timed). The first few hundred yards were a little slow-going as I weaved throughout the joggers but I finally broke free and got into a steady pace. It was a fairly uneventful 5k. It went by quick and I crossed the line in pain. It was awesome.
My goal was set at a conservative 24:30 and I pretty much crushed that by clocking a 22:42. That's a PR, friends. 7:19 per mile. I'm happy with that. Not only did I PR but for the first time ever I placed in my age group! Yeah…kinda funny, I stuck around for the raffle and place medals because I was half interested to see if I did in fact squeeze by.
Alright. Well that's it for me. Time for a shower and to really start the day.
Afer a couple of days off due to some exhaustion in the mind and legs I took off for a little road run this afternoon. Temps in Arizona are fantastic right now, mid-70's. There was a little pain in my left heel for the first eight minutes or so but once that subsided I gained some ground.
It was a quick run at just under 30 minutes, but I maintained a sub-8 minute mile. This upcoming Saturday will be my first 5k of the year. I have recently been working on a spreadsheet of all of my recorded race times over the past six years and it appears that my PR for a 5k is 24:34 set back in 2003 when I was 23 years old. A few years later now I feel like I can beat that time so I'm gunning for a 24:30 this Saturday which is going to require a 7:54 pace.
As I've been digging around on the internet looking for race times I'm recalling how I felt about and what I remember of each of those races. I haven't run that many: six or seven 5k's, an 8k trail run, a couple of half marathons, and an xterra tri. My very first race though, that 5k, the very first race of entire life at the age of 23 was spectacular. I was so nervous about whether I would have to walk, would I be coming in near last, etc. I had no idea what to expect. It was fantastic. It felt very similarly to how my first tri experience was. I love that feeling of nervousness. This is going to be my first race in a quite a while where I'm actually triyng for a PR; an entirely new set of emotions will present themselves I'm sure.
Today is a day off. I've got a couple of chores written down but am also planning on running, swimming, sleeping, and reading. Not necessarily in that order.