Mason 5K

Tonight I got my big month of racing in May off to a good start, running a 5K in the small town of Mason, Michigan (south of Lansing), where my brother-in-law Chip (Michelle's younger brother) and his family (wife Carla, and children Lauren and Grant, who are our godchildren) live. The course was a mostly flat tour of Mason's residential neighborhoods ... though it did finish with a mildly challenging uphill stretch leading to the downtown area. Chip and his family live right on the route, about a third of a mile from the end, and they watched from their front porch, along with Michelle and her parents, and they all set up a loud cry of support for me as I went by - it was very nice to have my own personal cheering section, especially at that point in the race, as it spurred me on to a good finish. Though I still await the official computer time, my unofficial time by my watch was 29:12, which would handily break my previous personal 5K record of 29:29 from a race in Dexter on December 13. I despaired of doing well, as I was prevented from doing the warmup I had wanted to my being trapped in an interminable line for the porta-potties before the race began ... but I just made up my mind to do the best I could anyway, and enjoyed listening to my iPod as I ran ... the first song was the theme from Chariots of Fire, and the one with which I finished (appropriately) was John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads."