First Day of Spring 5K

Happy new year, happy January 1st, and happy first day of spring!

When I first looked out the window this morning at 6:30, the wind was howling and snow was flying in all directions. My first thought was that I was excited about the weather for the 5K, because I love bad weather! I was thinking I'm probably the only runner who is excited about running a 5K in this crap.

I signed Dennis up and told him he was running, whether he likes it or not. He always talks about running more consistently so I was just helping him with his New Years resolution. He drank his coffee and I convinced him to get his running stuff on and we drove over to Runners' Roost.

We saw a lot of people, there was a pretty good turnout. After a little socializing and a trip to the bathroom, we did a warm up run with Josh, and checked out the first mile of the course. It was slick and icy in a lot of places, and the first two tenths of a mile were as slick as a skating rink, not because of ice, but because if the surface of the road with melted snow on it.

I jumped in the crowd and got next to the curb, my strategy was to keep from slipping or injuring myself and stay near the parked cars as we took off from the start. Fortunately it worked, and the footing didn't improve much until after mile 1. I got to the first mile in 8:09, which actually surprised me because I thought I was going much slower and running flatfooted in the slick areas.

I caught up to Dennis shortly after the first turn and we ran together for about 2 miles, until he got bored or something...

I reached mile 2 in 15:57 which means it was a 7:48 mile, a little better with the footing. I could see a couple of people ahead of me I could focus on passing. I tried picking it up in the last mile but it didn't take much to feel like I was going too fast. So I settled back into that pace, maybe 7:45ish. Ended up finishing in 24:26, which is still a slow time for me but better than the last 5K I ran in the beginning of November in 25:42.

For fun, I looked at the age group placings. I was 5th in my age group today, but in 10 weeks I'll be in the next age group, and would have placed first by a long shot.

Saw my buddy Nick Clark this morning, he watched the race with his son Alistair. They just got back from the UK so he was jet lagged. He's turning 40 this year. I'm turning 50. Two runners I know are turning 60.

Should be a good year for celebrating milestone birthdays, which reminds me, I need to get my butt in gear to figure out the birthday run agenda. Hint: there might have to be some pogo stick involvement in this one.

Afterwards we hung out and socialized for a while but it was getting cold in our damp clothes, so we came home to our Buffaloes, and now I'm waiting around and doing some stuff here until later when I go out for round two, another run. And this Sunday I'll be running the Edora Park 8K with the running club.

I bought a parks pass online this morning, for Larimer County parks, which will motivate me to drag my butt up to the trailheads and start doing Rock Repeats and get back to a little trail running this year, which I'm hoping I can tolerate with my ankle.

Lots of fun things to look forward to. Happy new year!