The Bagel Run

I ran in the Bruegger’s Bagel Run this AM.  Its a 5K here in Albany.  The race was not so very large, but it was a good turnout just the same.  Like most races here, this was a certified race but no chips.  I’m not competing for a winning spot, so no loss for me really.

We had some nice cloud cover early with a little breeze, but the sun was out by the time the starting gun went off.  I hadn’t run since Wednesday but I have been watching the calorie intake to keep myself from exploding again.  I had a good pasta dinner last night, but reasonable portions.  I think I still stayed within my target caloric intake for the day.

My wife was very kind to let me out of household duties so I could get to bed early on Friday night, and I think the extra sleep helped me recover from New Haven, so I would be ready for today.

I started out faster than I had planned (as is my custom), and tried my best to just hold on to that pace, but ended up going even faster.  I remember seeing the instantaneous paces on Forerunner as sub-7:00 a few times. This was a pretty flat course so if I was going to get some speed, this was the course to do it on.  Surprisingly, I did pretty damn good only 6 days after a 20K:

mile 1: 7:50
miles 2+3: 15:12 (never did see the mile 2 sign)
mile .1: 0:49

Overall: 23:52 (by Forerunner), 7:41 pace. Damn! Considering I was just a hair over 8:00 pace on the last 5K, I’m pretty pleased with this. That puts me about 30 seconds/mile slower than my 5K PR. For the first time in 3 years, I feel like a new PR is finally within reach. And I think that all the racing is helping me get faster. I’ve never raced this often before. Fits the old saying “If you want to learn to run faster, then run faster.”

Cool race bling: Technical race shirt and the bag that it all came in was one of those reusable grocery bags from Hannaford. My wife uses them so maybe this is the one I can keep in my truck and use myself.

Food at the race? Meh. Bagels, banas, pears, and little cups of Nantucket Nectar. We all headed for 2nd breakfast afterwards. I had a bagel with lox. Heh. By my calculations, I’m still within my target calories for the day, even with the extra race food and second breakfast. ‘Course, no lunch today, but I’m not really hungry anyway after two breakfasts.

Speaking of food and weight, my weight graph is telling me that if I stay on my present weight loss rate, I will hit 175 before the high school reunion. Yet another bonus today!

I was digging through old posts while writing this one and came across another where I am contemplating my next set of races.  It made me laugh to see myself saying I wanted to get my weight down again.  I had listed about half a dozen races I wanted to do.  I wanted to try barefoot running.  I wanted to get into running with flats to fix my form and stop the injuries (check!).

I made the post in October of 2005 (was it really that long ago?) while I was studying for the patent bar, and only a few months before I landed the rotten job that brought me back to NY, leaving all those races behind.  I got a chuckle at my closing line:

This all depends upon what is going on in the rest of my life. You can make all the plans you want but somehow the rest of the world expects you to carry on with your job and family life at the same time. Geeeeeeez.

Funny how life teases you like that.  :)

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