First Race - New Age Group

I ran my first race in a new age group yesterday and my first half marathon in 8 months. If I simply go by my three goals; 1. get to the start, 2. make it to the finish, and 3. enjoy as much as possible in between, then it was a success. Time wise it was 18 seconds per mile slower than I thought I might run with the type of training I have been doing (slow) so I wasn't really disappointed and place wise I was actually 3rd in my age group. So all in all it was a good race.

I did come away from it reevaluating my whole running-racing plan. I went into the race after two 6 hour runs prior thinking that I might want to just go back to running half marathons and longer because I do enjoy them but then after the race I started thinking that the only way I will get faster, if I get faster, is to continue running shorter races as well to force me to try to make myself run faster. So, that's what I will probably do, continue to race everything from the mile to 6 hours and see what develops.

The main reasons that I am running are health and travel so I suppose everything else like placing in my age group is gravy. Either way I go, I know one thing and that is that running is going to continue to be an important part of my life.

Here is a picture from before the race. I should wear black all the time; apparently it is a slimming color. :)

This is the third race in a row that I ran on the San Francisco Bay Trail; that must be some long trail!

 
A highlight of the day that could easily have turned into the low point happened when I first arrived at the Marina. I got out of the truck to stretch out and headed towards the water; it was still dark out. I saw a small black dog that I was walking towards. That's what I thought anyway until it raised it's tail straight up and turned so that I could see the white stripes down it's side. Needless to say I allowed the dog (skunk) to wonder off at it's own pace.

Here are some pictures from the bay and marina where the race was run. I love running by water!

As you can see it was a cloudy day but it was still beautiful, humid and cool.