A Dugyot in the U.S.A.: 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):