Friday Night PR

Last Friday I ran a local 5k in my neighborhood, the Lake in the Hills Sunset Fest 5k. Terri, Dante and a group of other friends I badgered into, ran as well. Some of the group I talked into running are new to the scene and I thought it would be a nice jester to host a post-race get together at my place afterwards. I even talked a Face Book friend (John) that I haven’t seen since high school to make it out for the evening. From looking at his pictures my friend John was a bit heavier a few years back and took up running to control his weight. I tell you he is in great shape and very fast. I was certainly impressed; he ran 22:06, his first 5k ever. He runs 5 or 6 days a week at home but not so many official races. I think almost everyone in the group PR’d or it was their first race. My son, Dante came in second place in the 10 and under group, my wife Terri had a PR of 26:32 and I had a PR of 25:16. I think we ended up with about 20 people showing up afterwards for the get together. I can’t think of a better way to end a Friday evening race than with a cold beer and some food.

The week prior to the 5k I barely ran. I think I was still trying to let my body recover from the ½ Marathon the week prior. I felt a little guilty but when I started running the 5k I was feeling the effects of the longer run the week before. On that note I didn’t run the entire Labor Day weekend and yes I did feel a little guilty about it.

We spent the weekend in Wisconsin, as we do almost every weekend, to celebrate the end of summer. We managed to go boating, tubing and swimming in the lake and in general just hung out, cooked and sampled a few good beers.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the New Glarus Staghorn Oktoberfest at the store on Saturday. Staghorn was just released as their fall seasonal beer and was just available starting September. I only picked up a 6 pack just in case I didn’t care for it, but it was damn good. So good in fact I ended up driving to Madison on Monday before we were going to leave and picked up a ½ barrel of the stuff. I called the liquor store to see what they had in stock for New Galrus in a ½ Barrel and was surprised to find the new Staghorn. I jumped all over it and now have it sitting at home in the kegerator. I need to put a warning sign since Staghorn is 6.25% alcohol by volume.

I find myself without another race until November. I am not sure if I should take the time to wind down or if I should look for another race in October. A friend of mine is trying to persuade me into a 13.1 trail run in Madison but I am inexperienced in trail running and think that would be a long distance for my first attempt.