Race Day...Even for Me!

Thanksgiving morning really was a time to give thanks!  It was my first "real running" day since early September.  Yes, almost 3 months had gone by since I had run outside, on pavement, in an unassisted manner.  My return to racing took place in Palm City at the 5k Turkey Trot.

It was a cold morning.  So cold, in fact, that I didn't even look at any temperature readings before the race.  It had to be in the upper 40s, and it was windy too!  I ran wearing my fleece over my team jersey; there's your proof that it was damn cold!  (Although, to be totally honest with you, at about a half mile in, I did wish that I had skipped the fleece.)

So being that it was my first race in pretty close to 6 months, my philosophy was to take it easy.  What does that mean?  The hell if I know!  Haha!  No, seriously, most of my AlterG runs were at paces between 8:10-ish and 8:30-ish per mile.  I figured that I'd be happy with anything under 9 minutes per mile.  Well, at one minute into the race, I got my first RunKeeper update.  My pace was something around 8:24.  Ok, not bad.  Each minute after that, got a little faster.  Before you start yelling at me because I was going take it easy, you've got to realize that 8:24 (or whatever it was) felt easy; in fact, it felt way too easy.  I just ran comfortably.  (Hmmmm, should I say that I ran at the edge of discomfort?)  While I certainly didn't set the world on fire or set any records, my average pace ended up being 7:47, and it was good enough for 3rd in my age group.  For my first race back, I was pretty happy!

Check out the goofy-yet-totally-cool trophy I won!

What's next?  Gettin' back to running my 'hood!  :-)