Autism Awareness 5K

A beautiful morning for a race....that is, for anyone who has gotten enough sleep in the last week to function like a normal person !
At any rate, Monica wanted to get a long run in today, but due to some delay in registering for the race we had to cut it short, so we only managed to sneak in 6 miles before the race. Mind you, in my 27 year running career, I have NEVER done a 6 mile warm up. I told Monica that I am starting to question her sanity...
The race went OK. They had a really good turnout, although most of the people were there for the cause and not to be competitive. I like races that are low key though every once in a while because there's no pressure and you can just go out and race the clock. My first mile was OK, I hit 5:17, I slowed and by the turnaround was only averaging 5:29 pace. At this point I started to feel hunger pains (as I'm sure that I had burned up my breakfast of Fruity Pebbles and an Irish cream mocha on our 6 mile "warm up") and I pretty much backed off to 6:00 mile pace after that. I finished in 17:49 and Monica was 2nd overall in 19:19. Of course we had to do ANOTHER 2 miles afterward, so we got in an 11 mile day. Good old fashioned fun. That's what that is.

Scotty (of "Scotty Doesn't Know !" fame) ran well today, a few ticks under 21:00 and looked ready for tackling his first marathon next Sunday. Portland is a great marathon for first timers and I'm sure that Scotty will kick some butt ! Knock 'em dead, kid !

Looking forward to running the City of Trees half marathon next Sunday. Two goals: run under 1:20 (6:06 per mile average) and to win the Masters age group.

Thanks to Mike, Kevin and Liz for cheering us on this morning !!