Downtown 5K Race Recap

   Well, it's been almost two and a half months since I last did a blog post and, given my age, I'm sure a couple of you may actually have wondered if I passed away but I am still alive and kicking! And, occasionally, even running!

Yep it was cold---can still see a little snow
from last night!

   In fact, this morning I took part in the Downtown 5K here in London. It's the first race this season in the London Honda race series and, for me, it got off to a pretty good start. The for me part is important because I have this suspicion I may have been the last male out on the course and my time was around 38:33 or something like that, godawful for a 5K but, given that my goal was to break forty minutes, I considered it a success! 
   This was also my first time racing in quite a while. For various reasons I missed the last two races of the series last year, once because work took me out of town rather unexpectedly and the other because I rather disgracefully punked out. So be it.

The finish line---note the winter wear

   Today, though, I actually felt like running. The legs felt good and the mindset was where it needed to be. Given the training times I'd been doing lately, finishing the race in under forty minutes seemed like a reasonable goal.
   I knew that somewhere along the line I would need a walk break or two (or maybe even six) and I toyed with the idea of scheduling them. In the end, though, I decided I would run as hard as was comfortable and take a walk break only when absolutely necessary. As well, I would only walk long enough to catch my breath a little and then I'd start running again.

Runners begin assembling

   Well, for the most part, that plan kinda worked. It got me in under forty and, although I think I might have been the last guy out there, I certainly wasn't the last person....
   It was a chilly run, winter seems to have returned to Ontario in the last few days and the race time temp was about -2C. Not too much of a breeze, though, so it was manageable and no danger of overheating. The police officers on the course and the volunteers all did a good job of keeping us safe and motivated. 

The start line was right beside City Hall.
If I were a civic reporter who also liked to
run and then blog about it, I would likely
spend a lot of time here...

   As per the name of the race, we ran on the city streets downtown, basically a 2.5K loop that we ran twice. I'm not really a huge fan of those kinds of courses, you run until you get back to the finish/start line and then they make you do that all over again. Psychologically, it's a bit of a killer and you see the same scenery all over again. All in all, though, it was a fun race and it was nice to get back into it again! The next race in the series is the Run for Retina on April 10 (quick turnaround), which has been a fairly high profile race here in London for awhile and one that I've always thought I'd like to run. Now I get to!

All lined up ready to go! Sorry, no "aftermath" pics! (gotta
get me a pair of shorts like THAT guy's....)