Well, I did my first 5K this morning since running with Gilbert's Gazelles, and it was interesting for several reasons.  The good news is that I finished 2nd overall (woohoo!), the downside being that there was really only one fast runner and he smoked me(dang!)  It was really a community fun-run so the competition level was pretty low, but any time I can race and be timed, it's a good experience.

I woke up hoping to feel good.  In fact, I felt pretty poor.  My outside right knee was really stiff from Thursdays' track run.  My left inside knee pain was back in full force as well.  I thought about throwing in the towel, but I decided that even if I went slow, I had to set the bar somewhere so that I could improve through the spring season.

The run was to benefit the UT Elementary School, so there were a bunch of kids in the race.  I'm guessing they were students.  I kind of felt like Kramer when he was the local Karate champion, only to find out all of his competitors were little kids.  Most of them took off from the start in a full on sprint the way kids do, and dropped about 50 yards later.  I also took off a little too fast, probably inspired by the kids.  By the time a quarter mile went by, I knew I had gone out too fast.  I was all by myself out in front, so I figured if I just glided through the course I might actually win.  Then I heard steps slowly gaining on me.  I got passed at about the 3/4 mile mark and hung with the guy through mile 1.  We must have scorched that first mile.  At that point, I was just trying to stay as close as possible.  By the time we hit mile two, he was way out in front and I was really hurting.  I just tried to hold on and finish.  When I saw the finish in the distance I got back a little bit of pluck and picked it up a bit.  My competitor probably beat me by almost a minute. 

I came through the finish in second place at 17:37.  For me, that's a really great time.  That's a 5:40 pace, which is the fastest I've run a 5K since high school!  Sweet!  I'm very happy with the results, even if I had to kung-fu a few kids to get there. ;-)