Saturday, May 20, 2006

Humane Society 5K

Today I participated in my first 5K race. Kate was able to do one in Florida, so I figured I'd give this one a go. Plus the money goes to the Humane Society, so why not?
Well, I'm happy to report my first win. #1 in the male 20-29 division! Booyah!

Kate still has the good camera
Now, before you get any disillusions about my running abilities, let me state that it was a pretty shallow talent pool today. I've never practiced running a 5K- since that's only 3 miles, it about 2/3rds of what I normally do every day. I set a target of 21 minutes, but actually ran it in about 22:34. I'm sure with a little practice I could eventually get sub-20, but with the Marine Corp Marathon coming up, speed isn't really what we want. It's worth mentioning that you could run with a dog, and one dude with a dog beat me. I talked to him, and he said he and the dog had been training for this, so I wont take that too hard.

The biggest victory of the day came from the raffle at the end. I am the proud winner of a gift certificate for dinner for 2 at Outback Steakhouse! All in all, I'm pretty glad I decided to go instead of sleep in.

Also, big congrats to my buddy Mike, who finished second overall and first in the 30-39 group.

Update: It turns out that there were 6 competitors in my age group, and I finished 11th overall. You can see the full results here.