Over the Hill

This past Thursday evening I ran a 5K downtown Chicago, or so I thought. The weather was perfect, but the organization of the 2009 Race Judicata sucked. Not to mention the 5K turned into a 3.41 miler. Seriously when you move the starting line you know that the rest of the course will be affected. My Garmin told me something was wrong by mile 2 when there was no split time around. The timer was much farther away as well as the water stop. The crappy part of the whole thing is that I was running my fastest 5K pace ever. The final approach was under Columbus Avenue and uphill. Unfortunately when you are pacing the finish line to be .31 miles closer, it adversely affects you. I know it was only a 5K, but this still pisses me off. Not to mention this little race cost $38 to run. You think they would have gotten it right.

I digress from my ranting. A few good things happened out of the whole thing: (1) I have a new PR for a 3.41 Miler (2) There was cold Goose Island 312 beer waiting for me at the finish line and after each one I seemed to be less annoyed about the whole thing (3) A friend of mine drove me home, so I didn’t need to worry about that aspect of the evening.

On Friday I played in a golf outing with my uncle and his buddy's. We played at Evergreen Golf course in Elkhorn Wisconsin. We had a great day, beautiful weather and didn't play to terrible either. I only play golf a handful of times a year so I was elated when I got a birdie on a par 3 hole. Of course I started to fall apart on the back nine, I am not used to swinging a club around for 4 hours. I was pretty tired after that. After golfing they cooked steaks over a large grill and had door prizes. I won a bottle of merlot and my uncle got a Tasmanian devil head cover. He gave it to me to give to my son for his clubs (he loved it).

I am approaching the colossal milestone of turning 40 this weekend. We are having some friends over at the house to help celebrate my old age. I honestly don’t feel different physically, but I do have to admit, there is a bit of a mental thing going on for me. I can’t exactly pinpoint what it is, but maybe I have to recognize I am no longer a kid and officially an adult, or should this have happened already?

I am trying to stay focused and keep up with training for my ½ at the end of the month, but my knees have been a little sore this week. I ran a few times over the weekend after the Thursday night race and my legs felt heavy and sore. I took last night off from running and took the dog out for a walk around the neighborhood instead. Maybe my body is getting ready to shut down at 40 years old. I guess I will just keep plugging along, I would feel too guilty otherwise.