Menudo 5k

Played golf on Thursday and then ran extra intervals that night. My times were all around what I wanted them to be, but not necessarily in the right order. This left me unsure of what to expect of myself at today’s race.

After I left the house, and just before I got on the freeway, I realized I forgot my watch, and ran back home. This made me even more nervous about trying to warm-up, get my number, and not being late. Without speeding, I got to the race with plenty of time to spare. Met my ma and step-dad walking to the registration, and fortunately don’t feel like I needed to entertain them. This allowed me to run for a 15 minute warm-up or so, and not worry about getting back to my car to drop off my sweatshirt and race bag, because ma was nice enough to grab it from me.

Today was another small race, maybe 75 people. Flat out and back course with the temps in the mid 50’s, but kinda windy. I lined up closer to the front today, and tried to get to the right when I realized that there was a jog in the road about 200 meters out. My first mile was 7:34, which I thought was too fast, but I felt great. Again, I was able to pick out a guy (in grey) early that I thought I could follow. About 1.25 miles in, I was passed by a guy in a red shirt, and tried following his cadence. I stayed with him, but his feet hit the ground too infrequently, as he was a good six inches taller than I. Saw my step-dad about half a mile after I turned around. He looked good and I felt good, so I yelled something about a nearby geocache. I don’t remember my two mile split, but the back of the one mile marker was 16:07, and I defiantly thought I could beat 24:00. The guy in the red shirt was caught with 400 or so left, and grey shirt and I sprinted in, and I finally passed him with 30 meters left. I wouldn’t let him go faster than me. (I sound all serious right there, but it was all in fun.) Through the chute and had over my number tag, start to stretch and realize I forgot to stop my watch. Oh well, results will be posted online. After my finish, I walked back and found my step-dad and ran the last ½ mile or so with him. He said I helped him in, so that’s a good thing, and he crushed his goal time of 35:00 with a 30:20. The online results have me with a 23:40, and I feel great about that.

Step-dad got around to asking me what my running goals are. I’ve been thinking about a 10k in early/mid June, and not much after that. Other than maybe a marathon next summer in Walker, MN. He wants to run an 8k somewhere in four weeks. A nice 8k sounds good to me, and there’s one in St. Paul the weekend he’d like.

What’s after that? Besides the birth of our kid and a complete change in my life that is. Any ideas as far as running is concerned?