Happy 4th of July

Yes I finished the race

I think the worst thing about running in Florida is the crack of dawn start times for races.   Yes, I know why, it's fucking hot, but that doesn't take away from having to get up at 530am on a holiday so you can drive to St. Pete and run for just shy of an hour...   And it was still hot.   It didn't feel that bad when my wave started, but it was pretty gross by the time I finished, and every article of clothing, including my shoes, was wet, and I was tired.   Very tired.   It made for a long, albeit enjoyable day.

Enough wining about the heat and getting up early, let me get to the exciting parts of yesterday.   

What a fun race...   Let me repeat that, what a fun race...  I thoroughly enjoyed it...

I ran the whole race, and without any severe discomfort or pain.   I stopped to drink water, which I expected, and paused to take one picture because it was funny, but I never had to stop and walk.  

It's funny because its true

I wasn't sure how I would feel today, because I was a little sore yesterday and concerned about knee and hip pain, yet none to speak of.   Today I feel great, yes, my legs are sore, but that's muscular, which I am completely fine with and honestly I should have expected.  I decided to skip my morning workouts today, partly because I was just tired, and partly because of being sore.   Instead, I'm going to do a low impact ride later and see how the TDE speed 20 feels. 

Note to self, make sure you stretch as soon as you got home.

I set a new PR for a 5k.  I'm nowhere near what I used to run at, but let's be honest, that was thirty years ago, and expecting to come back after a break like that, and run anywhere near those times is ludicrous.   I am more than satisfied with my time yesterday.   I didn't feel like I was shuffling at all, in fact I was able to lengthen my stride which helped me run faster.   I was able to accelerate to pass people when I needed to and I didn't I feel like I was landing heavily.

I'm pretty sure this was my longest run since 1995, and the longest race since the marathon.   That's almost thirty years and things I had assumed I would never be able to do again which I am very pleased with.

So... where did I finish?   My chip time was 52:29 which put me at a 13:07 pace.  Overall, I finished 697th out of 899 for all the men and 30th out of 47 in my age group.  Here are the official results: St. Pete Pier run - I was bib #1335.

So what does all this mean?  Mostly, it means that my running struggles have been a conditioning and mental issue so I think I'll be able to continue running and continue to increase my distance.   I think my biggest problem is that I'm impatient and expect to be able to run the distances I did thirty years ago, which is absurd.   I didn't get on the bike and within a few months expect to ride fast for an hour, or for 40 miles, so expecting to do that running is silly.  

In the near term I would like to get my pace down closer to ten minutes per mile.   I'd like to run a 5k in thirty minutes again, and I think that's feasible.   Long term I want to work myself up to a 10k by next year, and work towards the olympic distance triathalon.   Assuming I can do that, I'm going to train for the Miami half marathon.  It's a fast flat course, all runs in Florida are flat, and has a kick-ass medal.   I told Merinda that maybe we can go to Miami on Friday, just chill on Saturday, then I can run Sunday morning and we can go on a cruise afterwards.   This is a few years out so we'll see, but I've always been goal driven, so having those in the back of my mind is important.  Also, Merinda and Teresa both said they want to run this next year so look out...

Lastly, I want to thank Merinda for driving us to the event(s) being there for me and cheering me on.   It means more than you know...  Love you babe!  I couldn't do this without you.

Merinda and I right before the race

I really wanted to use this hashtag but didn't think other people would find it as funny, but advil has been my best friend the past day or so :)

#advilbecausetheywontsellvicodinoverthecounter