Christmas Run

Wasn't sure what to expect this morning. I've had two calf injuries in the last 5 weeks which have really stifled my training. I ran once this week (Thursday) , a slow 4 miles just to make sure that I could run without limping. Since I hadn't signed up and wasn't sure that I'd even be able to run, I decided that I was goint to "bandit" the race.
Now, normally I don't advocate banditing races, but when I do, it's just a fitness test for me, I don't cross the finish line, and I don't take any of the post race food or drink or anything like that. I just use it as an opportunity to run hard against some other folks.

After warming up for about a mile and opting for racing flats instead of spikes as the roads were pretty bare, I took off with a pack of 3 or 4 other guys. I felt like I was working pretty hard, so when we got to the mile marker and it read 5:38 for me I thought, "Holy schnikes, this shouldn't feel this hard". A couple of more guys passed me and I settled into 6th and was just trying to focus on my form and not falling completely apart. With about a half mile to go I could sense the guys in front of me slowing and I worked my way up to 5th, which is where I ended up.

I ran 14:37, a 5:50 per mile average for the 2.5 miles. That might be easy to handle for a lot of people, but when you've run 5:33 pace for a half marathon and 5:59 pace for a full marathon, I could definitely tell that my fitness was lacking. I do think that the race actually helped stretch out my calf, because it does feel quite a bit better. Monica dug into it last night and worked out all of the knots and that helped too. Thanks, Monica ! On a brighter note, I did notice that my time was only 6 seconds off of last year's winning time, I got to burn some competitive juices, and I think that my calf will allow me to start training normally again.

Next race up should be the New Year's Day 5K, where I'll at least shoot for 17:30 (5:37 pace), and go from there. One step at a time.

Thanks to everyone for putting up with me while I was injured and grouchy ( ;

Dave