Sunday, October 30, 2005

The Five Mile


This was my first race in ten years.It was a good day. Here I am leaving for the race.










And here's a shot (sort of) of the start.


I stood well back from the ten minutes plus per mile sign seeing as how I had been training at fifteen minutes per mile. Surrounding me however were the skinniest bunch of rabbits I have ever seen. It turns out, I learned from listening, that they start back in the back in this race to keep from getting runover by the guys who ONLY do this race. Most of the people I was with were using this little 5 mile as a fun run, getting ready for next Sunday's Marathon. That was good because I paced myself along with some of them for the first mile or so.

My goal was to finish under fifteen minutes per mile. I did 58:40 or just under twelve minute miles. Look ! There's some people slower than me!!

Did I mention that there are 10,000 runners in this race? That's a lot of feet. I treated myself to breakfast and a cafe au lait at an outdoor (heated) cafe. Then I had my photo taken with my medal.

Did I mention I won a medal? Yes. Me. I was so proud. They came up to me as I finished and cut my timing tag off and gave me a medal. Wow.

Oh, and they gave one to every creature great and small that managed to crawl across the finish line, all ten thousand, six hundred and seventy-two runners, walkers, joggers, sloggers and creepers.

I put mine next to my inspirational photo the New Yorker published of me last July.





Oh, and I am down to 210.8.

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