Yesterday (Saturday, November 24, 2007) was the second year in a row that I ran in Tom's Annual 5K Reindeer Run in western Laurel (Prince George's County), Maryland. I did not know what to expect of myself here, since I have only been back at running for a little over a week now, I probably would have been happy to come within three miutes of 18:06, the time I ran on that course last year. Plus, I had run the Eastern Shore Butterbally Belly Buster 5K in Queen Anne's County, Maryland the previous day in 20:44 (and I was hurting at the very end, despite how flat it was). I figured I would probably be hard-pressed to break 21 minutes on this fairly challenging course, and I had not even gotten that much sleep the night before. Oh well, I'm glad I came into this with the mindset of just runnin' it for fun...
Well, I was pleasantly surprise that I expected wrong of myself and I still had fun.
I started off nice and steady, probably towards the back or middle of the pack. There were porbably close to two-hundred participants if not more. I felt steady and pain-free pretty mcuh the whole time. I managed to work my way through different packs of runners with fair ease. In fact, I would not have been surprised if I ran negative splits.
I finished in the top ten and hit about 20:08! Man, had I felt that good, I probably could have broken 20 minutes the previous day at the flat Maryland Eastern Shore Butterball Belly Buster 5K in Grasonville. Ah well, at least I can say that with the past three running events I have run in the past three days in a row, my performances seem to have improved. I was also blessed with another age group award and just like at the Butterball Belly Buster 5K, I won another random prize (an Under Armor back pack). Yes! I'm on a roll. Maybe I better look to hittin' up some races in Vegas. YEAH!!!!!! Two successful raffles in a row. Just more incentive to merely show up and participate in these events.
All right, I'm gonna get ready to head to church and then hopefully head to the track for a nice run. A lot of these photos are courtesy of David Flynn (the gentleman in the photo with me as we hold out our age-group award plaques) and his camera. Thank you all for reading and I hope you all continue to enjoy the weekend!
2 comments:
Hello Noah. Thank you so much for sharing your life with us. You provide much needed inspiration for me to live a better life. Just reading your posts has me pulling on the Asics and heading for the pavement.
Don't know if a problem exists on my end, your race list displays gibberish for race names. I attempted to copy and paste an example here but was told
"Your HTML cannot be accepted: PHP, ASP, and other server-side scripting is not allowed"
Perhaps this is a clue?
Thought you'd like to know. Can't wait to see how you do this weekend on Kent Island. My son (he's now at SU!) won it a few years back. He claimed there was no competition. I warned him that wouldn't be the case this year. He's been on your heels a few races and while he's never bested you he always runs faster for your presence.
All the best
Candi, hi! Thanks so much for your encouraging message. It means a lot that my quixotic Maryland-wide running endeavors have inspired a healthy life style. I praise God for that!
What is your e-mail address? I would like to talk to you more about this if you'd like. My e-mail address is: noahwood@juno.com Mind if I ask what your son's name is? I might remember him. I have run again many high school/college-aged students this year. If you're gonna be at the Jingle Bell 5K Run tomorrow in Queen Anne's County, then don't be a stranger! I apologize, on some browsers/computer systems, my list of running events I have run in that day appear to have all these jumbled symbols in it unfortunately. I'm not sure why that is, but sometimes it comes out clear. I have run in two races so far this year in Queen Anne's County (both of which have been on the Kent Island area), and many more on the Maryland Eastern Shore. It's been a pretty neat experience, thanks for keepin' up. Maybe I'll cya at a race, take it easy and enjoy the weekend!
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