St. Pat's 5k - 20:52

Well, it wasn't a 5K PR, but it was a course PR. Last year I decided to run this race about 45 minutes before it started. This year I was planning to sit it out due to this nasty cold/sinus sickness that is refusing to leave my house. My family has been getting it's butt kicked by the cold bug....I started getting it last weekend and then it hit me hard at around the middle of this week. Pair it up with a stressful week of work and it makes for a very rough week of training. In fact, I only ran/worked out once this entire week.

I woke up this morning happy that I was able to get some decent sleep, but still feeling pretty miserable. The wife and I were both registered for the race, but after doing a quick round of temperature checks we found that 2 out of our 3 kiddos had slight fevers. So...that meant that either me or the wife would need to stay home. I was pretty convinced that I would get sick bay duty, since the wife seemed to be feeling a little better than me. But, after thinking it through (read: me nagging and whining), I was nominated to go run. We knew that someone had to go pick up the race packets to get our shirts....and I felt that if someone was going to drive all the way in for the packets, that person should also run the race. The wife and I didn't quite see eye to eye on that one. :) She was scheduled to teach an aerobics class later in the day, so I didn't feel so bad about racing.

The running conditions weren't that bad....just over 30 degrees, very little wind, and a big crowd. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite shake the mucus out of my system! (gross, sorry). I wasn't really sure what to expect from this race. I told myself that if I could finish under 21:00 I would be happy. I started off feeling great...not too fast this time, pace felt really good. My pace slowed towards the end, but I still felt good. In fact, I probably could have kicked it in a bit more. I ended up finishing at 20:52, 40th place overall. I'm okay with the time considering my health, but I know I could have done better. I guess I was just a little hesitant to kick it in. Next year!