This last Saturday I ran in my first “fun run,” the 5K at The Trailbreaker in Waukesha, WI. I had finally agreed to run with my wife….you know, just to be sociable. It might have felt a little romantic, or at least a little cute for Grandma and Grandpa to come across the finish line together; however, unfortunately, we were both working a little harder than we thought we would be at our torrid 10:01 pace. I finished 2/4 and she finished 3/8; not exactly a lot of competition. Of course, we can take some solace in the fact that most of our would-be competition stayed home.
Honestly, I haven’t been working very hard at this running rehab thing. I much prefer to ride the bike and have been riding more miles in each of the successive three years. The goals I set two years ago are looking to be wildly optimistic. I’ve managed to run a single 8-minute mile on a treadmill, and managed two miles in 17 minutes. It seems that as soon as I get up 12-15 miles/week, various tendinitis type maladies settle in around my feet. The new goal will hopefully turn out to be more realistic: 15:18 (7:39 pace) for the 2-mile run portion of the Army Physical Fitness Test. This will give me the 100 points required to get on the extended scale. (More on that later!)