35:01

So while the rest of the running world was focused on the NYC marathon this past weekend, another race was going on across the country called the St. Joes Half and 5K.  There's nothing particularly special about the race, but it was local and the timing fit in with my schedule, so I decided to run it.  Anyway, I finished with a pathetic time of 35:01.

Really small.  Interested parties can look at a bigger version here

I had initially thought about doing the full half-marathon (kind of oxymoronic, I know), but opted to to just the 5K instead.  I tweaked my left calf doing a treadmill workout about a month ago and had to forego long runs for 2 weeks.

I was really trying to do a sub-30 5K, but in the end my time was nothing to write home about.  Hardly anything to blog about either, but I leave it here mainly for documentation purposes and keep myself accountable.  Not necessarily making excuses, but I will list 2 reasons for my poor finish:

1.  The course was not a real 5K.  It was 5K-"ish," at 3.4 miles (for some reason, they calculated the pace based on on a distance of 3.1), and
2.  The total time was "gun time," not chip time.  As somebody who hates crowds, I usually hang out around the back of the pack when the gun goes off.  That was a few minutes wasted just waddling up to the starting line.

Encouragingly, based on what my GPS watch says, I would have come in a little under 30 minutes for a legitimate 5K.  But the official race results are not based on my GPS watch.  So... better luck next time.

There WERE some good things that came out of this race, though.  For one, I invited our office staff to participate.  Although they were hesitant to "run" the race, they were willing to walk it.  So we had a fun "office activity" that promotes health and wellness.

I hope there's no copyright infringement of any sort here

Another good thing is that Gianina, Adrian, and I did the race together.  The last one we did this was circa 2008, when I ran a 5K and Gianina pushed Adrian along in a stroller.  Note that when I say we did it "together," I don't mean that we were holding hands or were tethered in any way, but we all entered the same race and went through the same course.  Unfortunately Adrian did not have a very good experience, complaining of foot pain at multiple points all throughout.  Maybe he needs fancy running shoes too.  If he doesn't get soured on the whole running experience, maybe we can start running future races as a family.

We are the champions

On a side note, I have to practice being more "photogenic" while running.  For some reason, all the pictures of me running look like I'm walking.  Cases in point (and these are the good photos, too):

Adrian, on the other hand, just seems to naturally look good.  

Proof of evolution, I suppose

I know it says "Half Marathon," but for some reason they gave these medals to everyone.

1:33

So this weekend, I ran the 2016 Bay to Breakers.  At 1:33:04, my pace was a far, FAR cry from my most recent race, but whatever.  It's been a looong 6 years littered with multiple false starts (and injuries - don't forget the injuries), but I'm back.

My stats for the race.  Everything kind of sucks, but at least I "placed" within the upper 50th percentile.

I've wanted to run BTB after reading about it on a running friend's blog a number of years ago.  It seemed like a fun, slightly off-kilter race, a longer version of a fun run.  I won't belabor the point about how zany the race is, as a cursory google search will yield enough reports.  Personally, I did see some completely unexpected things, such as a group of pirates cheering from a rooftop and stormtroopers working out on ellipticals (!).  There was also a fair amount of nudity that I was able to snap pictures of... pictures that I won't post here out of good taste and fear of prosecution.

Not to make excuses for my deplorable finish, but my goal wasn't really to finish fast.  It was to finish, period.  The BTB was a "proof-of-concept" that I can still run long(ish).  Now it's time to step up my game and train to run fast(er).  Next up, a half.

Not to make any excuses for a future deplorable finish either, but I think I may have injured myself a bit during this race.  It feels like someone is stabbing the side of my left ankle whenever I put weight on that foot.  I honestly don't think it's anything serious - probably just tendinitis from trying to finish strong while running on the sloped portion of the road - but we'll see.  Hopefully I haven't inadvertently destroyed my chances of running 26.2 again at some point.

Provided that my foot pain isn't anything more serious like a stress fracture, my next race report will be about a half.  We'll see.

At the starting line.  The race runs from east to west, so I was staring straight into the sun when I snapped this selfie.

That's what I was looking at.

There's something odd about this picture... can you find what it is?

My neighbor showed up to run.

At the finish line.  I'm not really smiling, I'm just breathing hard.  Note the alar flaring.

Race bib and finisher's medal.