Brief Reflection

Since my birthday is the 31st I have been reflecting on my years of running. I originally started in 1972 when Frank Shorter won gold in the Munich Games.

I wasn't a consistent runner until 1974. That was when I read Bill Bowerman's book, "Jogging" and started using it to give me a true training plan to go by. I also read Kenneth Cooper's "Aerobics" and started counting aerobic points. As a matter of fact I still count aerobic points to this day. That is over 34 years of counting.

I would say that those two books are the ones that got me motivated to stick with running in 1974.

I ran my first race soon after, it was a 10K in Lakeland, FL and my time was 45:21. I have run many races since then and have a PR for 10K of 39:01, but I always look back at that 1st race as my benchmark.

-- Post From My iPod

Track Club X-C Race

Yesterday morning I got up early so I could drive to Canton, GA for the Atlanta Track Club X-C race. Got to the race site at Boling Park about 40 minutes before the race. Plenty of time to register and run a mile warm up. I needed the warm up, the temperature was 47 and I was freezing.

I was still cold when the race started, but the warm up helped. The course was three loops which means each loop was one mile since the race was a 5K.

I had a pretty evenly paced race, each lap I ran was within 3 second of each other. As a whole I felt very good about the race. My finish time wasn't that fast, I ran a 28:35, but I did finish 3rd in my age group.


-- Post From My iPod

Today's Race

Woke up this morning anticipating a good run on the trail at the XTERRA GA Fall Fitness 5K Trail Run.

I wasn't disappointed, the weather was great and the race was well organized.

We started in the parking lot so the field would be spread out by the time we hit the trail.

The trail was mostly hard packed clay and crushed rock and was wider than single track so there was no problem passing or being passed. There were some uphills that I had to do some walking on, but it seemed like most everyone did also.

My daughter Laura also ran the race. It was her first trail race and she was not quite sure if she liked trail races or not. I think she did, because she asked when the next one was taking place.

I finished in a slow 29:23, but managed 2nd in my age group, so I didn't feel to bad about the time.