5K Run

This year has been all about running, and I am totally shocked that I am starting to like it more. After 4 weeks of living in Mexico City, I have really only spend about 5 days there. The rest of the time has been spent traveling to our other properties in the resort destinations of Mexico. I know, poor me. Because I have been traveling so much, the only thing I can really do is run. And I cant even do that consistantly. I cant run on travel days because those usually consist of waking up before 5 and getting back to bed after 10 or 11. But the other days, I am up early to run. Since I dont have a real schedule - work or training, and have been unable to really plan out my season due to the move to a new city, I have been just been racing when I am a city that has a race. For example, when I was in Houston two weeks ago I did the half marathon. When I am in Hawaii for the next two weeks I am doing an 8K and an 8 miler. And this past weekend I was in Houston I did a run till you puke (5K). It has been hard to really figure out a training schedule, but I am a HUGE planner, and this will allow me to be a little more flexible.
The 5K is such a fun distance. There is not a lot of time to be in pain and you know it will be over in about 6 songs. The course was awesome and the weather was perfect, and best of all it gave me a base to know what I think I can realistically accomplish. The actual course according to Garmin was 3.23 miles, so a little bit longer, but my miles broke down like this: 8:05 (i actually threw up in my mouth a little bit during this mile and got a little scared that if I puked it would be 100% alcohol), 7:50, 7:48. Not all that fast compared to some of you runners out there, but it is good to know where I am sitting now with my non-existant training. I was happy with the time considering I went out the night before with my wino dad and friend until 1:30 and I have not really run since the half marathon except for a couple of beach runs. Plus I will have the altitude on my side. I didnt really have that benefit for this race as I have not been in Mexico City since before the half marathon, but once I am there full time I think it will help. Especially since all of my races will be at sea level. So my goal for 2009 is to run a 5K under 23 minutes. I guess I need to really start training now since I wrote the goal down!