Well, I ran my first race of the year last night. It’s hard to believe that I actually haven’t run a race yet this year, but it just never worked out in the schedule. Last night was the Moonlight 4-Miler from the local Richmond Road Runners club. This race is 4 years old, and I have run it all 4 years. I have improved my times the last 2 years and this year broke my goal for the race - under 32 minutes. OK, according to the offical time (go to www.rrrc.org, then Race Results, then search the results for the specific race), I was actually a 32:05, but it took me 10 seconds to get to the approximate start line, so I wound up with a 31:55 on my watch.
The other big takeaway from the race is that I finished in the top half of my age group (8th out of 17), which I normally don’t do. To me, that’s a good indicator that I’m getting the fitness I’m aiming for. I even finished in the top 100 for the race (actually the top third), which is excellent. Usually I’m about halfway back at most races, so another sign that my training is coming together alright. (Losing over 25 pounds this year so far has definitely helped.)
Now the part I’m most disappointed in was that I didn’t get a trophy. Well, certainly not in my age group, but I was in the running for the Clydesdale category. What’s that? Just for us plodders — guys who weigh over 200 pounds. After placing 5th in that category last year and 3rd in that category the year before, I placed 4th this year — 1 spot (and 15 seconds) out of a trophy. (They had no trophy the year I placed 3rd.) Grrrr! I probably had 15 seconds in me to push more on the course, though I didn’t do it. Oh well, maybe next year.
(If you don’t realize it, everything in the paragraph above is tongue-in-cheek. I’d like a trophy, but it doesn’t mean that much. Just an indication that I’m close to being somewhat competitive.)
The other nice thing about this race? No, no race shirt or anything. But they do provide Bruster’s ice cream after the race for each participant. Yum! A nice way to cool down after a warm (low 80s at the start) and slightly humid race. And the nearly full moon rising over the course at the end was a nice touch, too.
And next Saturday is another race for me — this time, a half-marathon. So look for more on the Patrick Henry Half-Marathon next Saturday. Hopefully, it will be better weather than last year, in its inaugural race - a time of record warmth, with morning temperatures already in the low 80s at the 7:00am start time. And it just got more miserable from there. It cannot get worse than that, can it? knock on wood
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