Well, to try and restart my run training for the next year, I wanted to do a 5K race, a 5 miler, and eventually a 10K to get a sense of what my training paces should be and what I can actually still do. I got up at 4:15 this morning so as to be at a race in el paso at 8 a.m. By the time I got there, my back was sure sore, but that is just the way driving is these days. The race actually began at 8:20, and the carmometer said it was already 88 degrees. The course was a mild long first half down hill, and a corresponding mild long uphill second half. I went out too fast for my real state of deconditioning. I found it funny that since it was an out and back course, I got to first see 3 teens blasting there way home, and then about a minute later, a 20's triathlon couple (I am guessing from the Zoot shoes) going at a pace that got them in at 18:20. Now, I almost had to laugh on the run (except I was in too much pain) cause for most of my 30's, my 5K times were 17:45 to around 18:20, so I would have been with them. Instead, I had to squint my eyes looking for the turn around out there in the distance. Of course, I got to watch lots of girls, women and men with strollers, and a guy with a dog on the way back before I hit the turnaround. I hit it at 12:12 and new that I was screwed, and would be struggling home on the uphill. I finished in 26:36, so I met my only goal of beating half my age. There were 5 geezers in the 50-59 age group, and I beat the 3 that were 56-58 years old, and got toasted by three minutes by the guy who was 51. He ran a 23 and change. Now, when I was his age, I could still hit 21 and change, so that speaks to those age brackets needing to be 5 years. The worse thing was a guy who happened to be a retired social worker from el paso who just turned 60 also turned in a 23 and change. BASTARD. I only met him because he came up to me after the race and said "you are in my age group, aren't you?" Did I say Bastard before? So, I have a place to start now. There are a bunch of races over the next 2 months that are in the 5 mile and 10K range, so I should get a chance to see how those go, and hopefully it will be a tad cooler. Stopped on the way home in Las Cruces at the Rib Cage and got a lb. each of pulled pork and beef brisquit, as well as a full rack of ribs for Deb and I......MMMMMMMMMMMMM!
