I was smiling

SATURDAY, JULY 02, 2016

Today I ran the Big Smiles 5K in New Buffalo, Michigan, with my good running friend Jerry and his relatives Lowell and Genevive.

What a great improvement over my last 5K! That was the hilly neighborhood race I ran just after we moved to Annapolis in early June, with a time of 28:45.

In New Buffalo, the course had a few hills but we were blessed with relatively cool weather and an overcast sky. Jerry and I did a 1.5 mile easier warm-up run and then added 4 X 100-meter strides in the crowded race parking lot. We were ready!

As a natural rabbit, I consciously tried to pick a pace I could sustain but that was right at the limit. Here were my mile splits:

Mile 1 8:10

Mile 2 8:35

Mile 3 8:28

Mile 3.2 1:06

I knew I was pushing hard in the first mile: I backed it off just a bit in mile 2 so I did not burn out. It seems like it was the right idea, because in mile 3 I felt a little more fluid and and maintained the pace and then pushed it with a little pick-up through the finish.

The result? A time of 26:19, 8:23/mile. No age group medal (the group was a ten-year span and I was among the oldest), but that's a 2:16 improvement! It's amazing what getting back to consistent training can do for one's racing times...