I ran for the "L" of it and PR'd

Nothing like having friends who send out emails on Tuesday or Wednesday saying, "Hey, there's a race this weekend, wanna run?"

Since this friend is a school teacher it wasn't phrased in "redneck", but my mind translated this into the, " you ont to?" Which of course is second only to "Watch this!" as famous last words in redneckdom, and despite a college degree and fancy job title, I still hang out there from time to time (see post about our RV for proof).

Well three days sequestered in a hotel room or office for 12+ hours conducting interviews, a flight aborted half way down the runway (which is much better than having it abort half way into the initial climb) and six hours in airplanes and airports had me feeling pretty irritable. Stepping off the plane in Louisville I made two calls. The first one was to my wife to let her know there was no big settlement for her from Continental Airlines this time and to find out what we had going on Saturday morning. The next call was to Alicia to tell her I'd run for the "L" of it. I needed to blow off some steam!

In the interest of shortening this post. Run for the "L" of it was a 5k sponsored by the University of Louisville Alumni Association. It started and ended at 4th Street Live! in downtown Louisville and I guessed right that the course would be flat.

Flat course plus I haven't run all week had me thinking PR. Well the lead pack was a bunch of youngsters. Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers. Not the best group to be trying to set pace with, but I started in the front and planned on staying there. The first half mile my legs felt like lead and I questioned my decision to race. Then things felt good and I turned in my fastest mile, clocking the first mile in 6:03, 12 seconds faster than my previous best. At the 1.5 mile mark the pace began to take its toll. I logged the second mile in 7:03, slipping more in mile three, but holding on to set a new 5K PR of 21:03. Twenty six seconds faster than my previous PR.

More impressive was Alicia turning in a 29:10+\- (I was shocked to see her so far ahead of her 30 minute goal time and didn't see the clock right as she finished) at 5 1/2 months pregnant.

We didn't stick around for the awards. I'm pretty sure I slipped from the top three in my age group in the last 1/4 mile, but checking the last two years' results (Saturday's results haven't posted), my time might sneak me into a third place age group spot. Who cares? I PR'd. I'm happy. Now to enjoy vacation, run a little bit, and get ready to start training for a fall marathon.