Garden Variety Maritime Runner: Lincoln 5k and photo gems

I ran the Lincoln 5k today, the first of my spring races. Last year in this 5k, I just wanted to finish under 25 minutes, and stumbled my way to a 24:57. This year, all I was asking for was 24 minutes. That seemed about right, given that I’m kinda slow to begin with, and my mileage lately (about 25 miles/40 kms per week) has been relatively low.

The picture above shows me at 23:57, but the official results have me at 24:01. I believe the chip time was only recorded at the end of the race, as the results didn’t distinguish between chip and gun time. Given that I started about halfway back in the crowd of a couple of hundred runners, I’m thinking my “chip” time had to be under twenty-four minutes. Oh wait ... am I really quibbling over 2 seconds, and the difference between a 24:01 vs. a 23:59 5k? Enough of that. I’m hopeful that when my training picks up, I’ll get a 23 minutes later this summer on an easier 5k course.

It was good to see Mike again at the race today. He’s rounding into fine form for Big Sur in a couple of weeks, putting in a very good result today. I’m looking forward to seeing his Big Sur pictures and hearing about the race. Mike mentioned that I haven’t posted much to the blog lately. I told him I would pick up the posting frequency once my marathon training picks up in June, to keep me accountable. However, I think perhaps that accountability should start kicking in sooner. I’ll go back to trying to post at least weekly, if only to put out a two-three liner summarizing the running for the week.

To wrap up this one, a picture of Cam after his kid’s run today. That’s followed by some of Cam’s own photography. The photos are good examples of what happens when you give a seven year-old boy your old 2-meg camera to have fun with.