I suspect that not many people care about my running adventures, but I do! (I do plan to post more useful running stuff such as high- and low-tech tools and what I learned about running.)
A bit of history. I ran the NYC marathon in 2015, which was the peak of my running fitness, then in December of that same year I moved to Seattle. Leaving New York shattered my running habits. I struggled to adapt to the Seattle weather (and both 2016 and 2017 were very rainy years in an already rainy city) and to the different work schedule; I missed my New York City running community.
This year, I’m running consistently again. I was able to do it because I quit my job in May, which substantially increased my free time and scheduling flexibility. We also had some surprisingly mild and dry weather in Seattle. I also started registering to races, another great motivation to run every week because now I have a goal to accomplish.
My goal race, at the end of November, is the Seattle Half Marathon, and I’m training for it. I ran two halfs in 2015, but nothing since then so I’m a bit nervous. It turns out that fear is an excellent motivator for training. I’m still not as fast or as tough as I was in 2015, but I’m in much better shape than I’ve been in the past 2 years.
Today’s race was one of my “training” races in preparation for the Seattle Half. It was called Run Scared 5k and 10K (a fundraising race for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society) and it was held in Seward Park, a beautiful running destination. It rained hard yesterday night, but the weather held nicely during the race and we even saw some sun.
I had the coolest bib number, 10101, which translates from binary to decimal as 21. Twenty-one is how old you need to be to legally do things that are bad for you, such as drinking, gambling, and buying cigarettes in New Jersey. It’s also the number of the amendment that repealed prohibitionism, the standard TCP/IP port number for FTP connection, the weight of the soul in grams according to Duncan MacDougall, and the number of solar rays in the flag of Kurdistan (source: Wikipedia).
I completed the race in 58:26, which is a 9:25 minute/mile pace, and that made me the first in my division. My rewards were a framed award, a drinking glass, and small pumpkin. All the finishers also got a nice winter hat with a ear-covering flap (I can never find hats that cover my ears, so I was delighted). Another reason for satisfaction is that the winner of the 5k was a 54 year-old woman; she beat all the guys and finished with a time of 17:38. You go, girl.
I love those smaller races. They are laid-back family events, with Kids dash mini-races that are adorable to watch and costume competitions, but they are still timed and nicely organized.
My next race is the 5K Green Lake Gobble on November 18.