Two Year Blogiversary

Hey all!

Just noticed that this blog is now two years old!

I don't think I posted as much in the second year as the first, but I haven't run quite as much this year either. Not by design, it has just worked out that way. This blog still serves as motivation to me. While no one is concerned when I don't post for a long period of time, I feel an obligation to do so on occasion. Because of this, it provides a slight incentive for me to continue to run to have something to type about. Every little bit helps.

My last post was about my "slot car running" where I get on track, then get off track with my running. Nothing has changed. When I wrote that post, I was on track. This week, I'm out of the groove and on the carpet again. This time, it was raining / pouring / storming whenever I tried to run. In three "scheduled" attempts during the week, I ran a total of one mile. The one time I got outside, it started to thunder after about a half mile out and I ran home and in a couple circles to get that mile. The other two runs just were completely cancelled. I didn't want to do treadmill and didn't want to do anything else, so I did nuthin'. Probably not the best course of action, but it's what I did. It is too easy for me not to run when things don't go my way. I guess I get credit for not quitting, but not much...

We went to a camp called Spring Hill over Memorial Day Weekend. The whole family went on pretty short notice upon being invited by some friends. This place was cool with a ton of outdoor activities available all weekend. The highlights for me, besides hanging out with my family, were the zip lines. (This isn't us in the video, but one of the zip lines is shown below.


I did get up very early to run on Saturday and went about 3 miles around the camp, checking things out. It was friggin' cold, but a nice, relaxing run. The following day, they had a 5k race scheduled, so you know I was in! I was not in race condition after the running, a ton of walking, zip lines and climbing wall from the day before in addition to little sleep. Regardless, I got up early, tried to get the kids ready to run (they bailed on me) and walked over to the start.
This was a race where I was hoping that I would be dominant as just smoke a bunch of slow, recreational joggers. This was not the case at all. There were a bunch of high school cross country runners and several adults that looked like they could throw down. It wasn't lookng great from a competitive standpoint. This was reinforced by the start, when about a dozen of the runners took off at a near-sprint pace. 
I felt sub-par from the start and had trouble getting into a groove. Sore, tired legs + tired body = slow running. I know I'm not close to the fastest guy out there, but I don't like when people who I think I should be beating end up going faster than me. I struggled along for the first couple miles, but actually picked it up to  near-normal race pace for the last mile. A combination of feeling a bit better and wanting to be done I guess. I did manage to keep ahead of and then pull away from a big pack of people who were closing in on me at the end of the second mile, which I guess was the highlight of this race for me.
My finish time was 25:14. It was hilly, but I was not thrilled with this time. Even so, I figured there was a chance to win some sort of age group award. As the race was "free", I didn't expect much in terms of awards or prizes, but when they announced they would have them, I was hopeful I would win something, as I figured I was still the fastest 30 something. However, the age groups were whack: under 16, 16 to 25, 25 to 45 and 45 & up. (There were also no separate men's and women's awards, just 1st in that age range overall so no women won anything) 25 to 45 is a pretty big range, so I didn't win. Actually, the guy who did win was probably almost 45 - he was surprisingly fast.
Yesterday, I was able to run about 4.5 miles. I almost didn't get to run at all because of rain / storms again, but it cleared up long enough to get the run in. It was not a great run, but at least now I am experienced enough to have an idea why most "bad" runs happen. For this one, I was not well hydrated and had mid-section cramping. Oh joy. 
3 weeks until what I consider my "home race", the Open Door Julie Run. This time last year, I was envisioning this as my first sub-20 min 5k. Now, I would be thrilled with a sub 22:16 PR. Even that will be tough - I think I would have trouble going sub 23 as of this moment. Maybe with 3 good weeks of training I can do it. Just gotta keep it in the groove.