The Running Man Returns

Wow - too long between posts! Having set myself a personal goal of completing a 10K before the year is out, I've been working on my running over the past few weeks.

I started by doing 5K runs on the treadmill in the gym, and getting times down to 24:30 - not record breaking, by any stretch, but monumental considering the state I was in 2 years ago. Then I found out about a 5K run that's part of the Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras (yes, we live in a city famous for mushrooms!). For the first time in 22 years, I got up early to pin on a number and run with about 200 other people.

The run was along the same trail where we did our 5K charity walk, so it was pretty easy and flat. That said, I was very surprised when when my watch showed only 13 minutes to get to the half-way point. I didn't think I would be able to get close to my gym times: after all, the ground doesn't have a motor to propel your legs at 8mph. That really spurred me on and I crossed the finish line with my watch showing about 24:30. The official results put me at 25:something, but they also claim I was 1 second behind someone else, and there was no-one in front of me when I finished. The finishing process was very manual, so I think they mixed up the group of runners I was leading.

I was very happy with this result, and I have signed up for two more 5K runs. The first is at Oracle headquarters in about a week, and the second is part of the Morgan Hill 4th of July celebrations. I would be very happy to finish either of these with a time under 24 minutes -- having set a "personal best", there's nothing else to do but beat it!

2010 is likely to see me focus on achieving a good cycling goal, and yes I will be hitting everyone up for donations, but 2009 will go down as the year I ran again.