Official results

According to the computer chip-timed results now posted online, I finished yesterday's Holiday Hustle in a time of 31:37, rather than the 31:38 I had recorded. And this brought me in 819th out of 1237 participants, but a dismal 31st out of 35 in my age group (50-54). Oh well! I'll hope to do better in 2010, with another year of experience under my belt! :)

Aging

I have said for some years now that, while with grandmothers who lived to be 102 and 93, I expect to have many decades ahead of me yet, I plan "only" to run until I'm 90 (increasingly slowly), and then scale back and walk. Now, though, at 52, I'm finding that thought more and more daunting. I still believe it's feasible ... but I need to readjust my expectations of myself, in terms of distance and speed. It's OK for me to allow myself to scale back a bit ... the important thing is just to keep going.

Holiday Hustle

This afternoon I ran another 5K race, the "Holiday Hustle," in the small town of Dexter, a few miles west of our Ann Arbor home. Like last year it was cold (about 28 degrees this time), but whereas in 2008 we ran through a picturesque light snowfall, this year we experienced a little snow on the drive to Dexter, but it was absent during the race. My training has been so spotty in recent weeks due to minor illness and injury that I didn't expect to have a good finishing time, and in that, I was accurate. Last year I broke a half-hour for the first time in a 5K, finishing in 29:29; this year I was hoping to break 32 minutes, and in fact by my unofficial timing, I crossed the line in about 31:38 (a pace of 10:11/mile). I came close to not running it, though, and then to stopping midway through and just walking. We arrived early and the race began a few minutes late, so as I waited on the cold afternoon, in the gathering twilight, I was tempted to just toss in the towel. But, as I run without my glasses, and am severely nearsighted, I knew I'd never find Michelle ... so I decided to just go and do the best I could. And I'm glad I did. It was very enjoyable, too, to run with my iPod playing Christmas music of Acoustic Eidolon, an ensemble I enjoy hugely, and whom I saw in concert in Ann Arbor a couple of weeks ago.

Changing seasons

I ran 7.25 miles outdoors on Thanksgiving morning (Nov. 26), and, though I don't think it caused this, my back was sore and stiff for the next few days, so I did not run again until today. I had double reason to want to run today, though. For one thing, it may have been the last chance I'll have to run outside in a t-shirt in 2009 ... 46-degree sunshine made for an irresistible lure. And the second reason was that it occurred to me this morning, that since I'm planning to run a 5K this Saturday (the "Holiday Hustle," which I also did last December), I'd better get back in the saddle and make sure it was going to be OK. I'm still mildly uncomfortable, but not bad ... I sure won't be trying for speed, though! And, as to the weather, the rain that has dogged us in recent days is slated to return tomorrow, to be followed by SNOW on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.