First 5K Report

There's an old story that Dad used to tell. It was short, thankfully, and went something like this.  "Come forth, said the King.  But I tripped over a camel turd and came in fifth."  That, in a nutshell -- minus the camel turd part -- is how my 5K went this afternoon.  I came in 5th of 10.  (It occurs to me that nutshell is just another way of saying nut case.) The photo below is of what remained of   my C25K group by the end of the program.  I clearly had the coolest shoes. (Our coach is third from the right.)

It was still cold at noon when we gathered outside of the Dow Center at the college. My car said 39 degrees. The winds were less than 10 mph -- not much of a factor.  It definitely helped to have previewed the course, though it was well marked at all the turns.  I hit the first four lights on red, as I had anticipated.  A water stop had been set up for us as we left the Window on the Waterfront park, a bit over half way.   The first three runners -- and yes, they were clearly running -- covered the course in about 31 minutes.  You might even  be able to pick out which ones they were -- the youngest and fittest.  The rest of us trailed in over time.  There weren't many spectators, as you might expect.  The cold might have had something to do with that -- a few family members and a few colleagues showed up to cheer on their favorites.  I got a nice piece of paper with my time on it, although there was no recognition that I had won my age classification.  I met all of my goals -- I finished, I didn't hurt myself and I didn't come in last.  41:44