It was a cold one, that's for sure. The east coast was feeling some of the effects of the hurricane formerly known as Noel, and the wind was pretty biting. It didn't help that I wasn't properly attired. The course was a pretty nice out and back, with some winding roads and gradual (i.e. deceptive) hills.

Today it was myself, my Dad and his friend from work, Jay. This was Jay's first 5k and his goal was to finish, which he did and then some, finishing in 27:39! Nice job, Jay!

My dad and I went out way too fast, hitting the mile mark at around 7:07. It felt good, but it would come back to haunt us later.

We slowed down a bit for the second mile, running it in 7:26 which is still a little fast, and I was starting to feel fatigued, because we'd reached the second half of the race, in which we had to run back up the hill we came down in the first mile and a half.

The last 1.1 miles was done in 8:22 (about a 7:36 pace). It felt a lot slower than that because some of it was uphill and I was really pushing at that point, but I tried to finish strong.

All in all, it was a good race. Jay completed his first 5k...hopefully the first of many. And I exceeded my goal pace of 7:45. I have a feeling that the real work starts now, though. These last 2 months have been good for getting me back into shape and I'm pleased with my progress, but I would really love to get down to sub-7 minute mile pace in the next couple months. I might actually have to start training smart!!! What a concept.

I'm going to start by going out for a slow 7-miler tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.