Return to running...

Once upon a time and years ago, I ran 5ks. They were fun, they were hard. I ran in the rain, I ran in the snow, I ran when it was 90+, I ran when it was under 30. I also ran a couple of 8ks in the dark in Maggie Valley, NC. It was fun and there were many opportunities to race and places to run. I rarely won, but who cared. It was a battle against the clock for me. I started off running the Salem 5k race in 2002 in 31:09, and best I can remember one of my best times was 29:11. I seem to remember my last race being 28:54. I know I broke 29 minutes. So what changed? Plantar Fascitis and night shift. Yup, got two bad feet and a shift where I was up and going all night long. The feets were unhappy and running became unfun. This is when I turned to cycling.

For some reason, the racing season seemed all messed up this year. There were fewer races and some that I couldn't get to. Several races landed on the same weekend. It also seemed like we had perpetual rain. I guess I have some competitive genes or something. I feel like I need to do something else this year. I had hoped to ride my road bike on a metric century (62 miles) before the end of the year, but I haven't ridden my road bike in what seems like forever, so I have postponed that goal until 2010. Maybe I'll get to 75 miles next year. This brings me to the Drumstick (I almost typed Drunkstick) Dash.

Thanksgiving Day, I will return to running after a many-year hiatus. I have been trying to walk the dog most evenings just to see how my feet are with being on pavement. Last week, I started back running. Let's see that gives me roughly 30 days to get ready. My first run was 1.18 miles and it took me 11:53. Tossed in a bike ride on Tuesday. Then Wednesday night I goofed off in the backyard doing a "Nike iPod" workout. Thursday, I went to the gym, warmed up by walking on the stairmill for about 10 minutes before heading over to the treadmill. I had happily completed a mile+ before Lisa wandered over and decided I needed to run another mile. The goal was to run a mile in 8 minutes. Well, I managed to do it in 8:30. Not so bad. I run slowly on the treadmill, so that was really moving for me.

This morning I decided to see how long it would take me to run a 5k. Off I went making up the route as I went along. I kept a fairly steady pace throughout my run. There were a few hills etc along the way. I did have to walk for about a half a minute around mile 2.5. I needed a break. As I neared my street, I checked my GPS, and it said I had 2/10 mile left, so I picked up the pace a bit. I was able to finish the 5k in 31:10. Not bad really. 10 min/mile pace for me is about where I started off 7 years ago when I started running. The majority of the race results that I can find have me finishing around 30 minutes, so really I'm not that far off. =) I doubt I'll get in a sub-30 minute run, but I'll try.