Lowell First Run 5k!

Part of getting my act together health wise is getting out and doing stuff. The first step, is to find some organized events, register, and be frickin' accountable! With that in mind, I signed up for the Lowell First Run, that took place on January first, at 11am.

The race comes in two flavors, the 10k and 5k. I'm no athlete (yet), so I opted for the 5k. In fact, when I signed Carla and I up for this thing... I was pretty proud of myself. Hey, let's do a race... back in October, it didn't dawn on me for some reason that a race on January first would be cold, and icy.

Cold, check. 30 degrees at the start. Icy? Naw, not bad actually. In fact, it was much better than I expected. The race was run on the roads of Lowell, MA and they were clean. We even had the local PD to keep us safe from the cars.

The start was a neat experience, everyone lined up, and with the tracking tags we were using, each runner got to run with exact time starting when you cross that start, and ending when you cross the finish, as opposed to straight clock time.

So the race itself was pretty neat. The first mile was the worst. It started with a couple good hills that were unlike what I've been doing in practice. Blew out my shins about a half mile in. I got pissed off over that actually, and it pushed me even harder. I had to walk for a minute or two a couple times during the race, but I kept truckin'.

After the first mile, things leveled out, and it was 2.1 miles of steady running. I was getting passed a lot, but I wasn't there to try for a top 3 slot. Although, I will say, at about mile 1.5 or so I got passed by the guy that won the 10k race. His entire back was covered in splattered mud.

Towards the end, I was really surprised that with about a quarter mile left I still had a bit left in me, so I stepped up the pace and started passing a few people. That felt real good.

I clocked in a time of 41:48.9... ok, fine... 41:49. Which works out to a pace of about 13:30 a mile. To put that into perspective, I was killing myself to run a mile in 16:45 back in March, and I was completely done after that single mile.

The after race was great, food, a place to sit, some water, and some music. People were buzzing, many of the 10k finishers were wearing nary but lycra and mud. Next year, I might try the 10k!

It was a great way to start the year, and an effective way to get rid of that little hangover I woke up with. ;) We rounded out the day with Sherlock Holmes, and some pho over in Chinatown. Awesome start of the year.