Not much going on early this week, but I do have an update from this past weekend's Animal Chase 5K. I placed 37th out of 94 runners. Better than mid-pack, but it friggin' hurt. I'm not much of a runner, other than the 2-ish miles a few guys and myself run every Wed. during lunch, so I didn't really have high expectations.

I started the run at a pretty brisk pace for my fitness level. I wanted to keep that pace the whole time. First mile down, just at seven minutes. I get not even 1/4 mile past the mile marker and already I see the leaders heading back to the start/finish, so quick oxygen-deprived math says they're doing it in 16 minutes or so. Turns out the 5k was just a warm-up run for these guys for the 10k after. The second half of the run is basically a slow uphill grade that is totally noticeable on the run back, not so much on the first half of the run. I pushed myself as hard as I could. I could feel my abs getting tight, my shoulders were hurting pretty bad and every time I turned my head in any direction, I got really dizzy twisting it back to look ahead. As I approached the finish line, I could hear people behind me panting and stomping their heavy feet and one kid was on the side of the trail, "Go Dad! You got it! You can pass him Dad! Pass him Dad!" I'm not sure if "Dad" was behind me or not, but I was damned if I were going to let him pass me at the finish line, so I did the best version of a sprint to the finish I could muster up...and no one passed me.

At the end, my time was 26 minutes 26 seconds for a 5k. Not too bad.

It was nice to get out and suffer doing something other than riding a bike. I do enjoy bike riding, but a change is good sometimes and I've really taken to this whole running thing. Maybe I'll go get a new pair of runnin' shoes?