32 degrees, no real interest in running it, wind… This was not looking to be a good race. Rolled out to the ole Herndon Community Center, registered, sat for an hour, warmed up with my old friend Jason, and we were off.

COLD AS… Really cold places… So cold I had no idea what kind of pace I was running. A bit in to the first mile, I turn to a guy with a GPS watch. He says we’re on about 5:50 right now. Certainly not too fast, but pretty quick… I wasn’t going to need to make any changes. Some time after the first mile goes by (I was looking all over for the marker, but didn’t see it), I see 8:0x. Great, one mile past, no clue what my pace is. Around mile two, a guy says “12:24.” I have no idea that it’s the two mile point, but after the race is over, I figured it out. I felt ridiculously strong, but could not breathe for the life of me. Final time, 19:20. 6:15 pace. I was hoping for under 19:00, but given the weather, I can be pleased with what I did.

8th in my age group, no idea what I was overall. I don’t feel at all like I ran a hard 5k as it was 100% lungs; my legs feel like nothing has happened… I’m just a little bit tired, but that’s probably because I haven’t been getting enough sleep.

As far as the race (not my performance) goes, it was not the best. The start? No real line. Mile markers? I didn’t see any, but apparently they were out there. The course? Boring; made a bunch of turns and such, but it al looked the same (was a golf course). Post-race? Food, drink, and door prizes were available. The food line had about 100 people in it until the end. Drink was acceptable (odd tasting gatorade, cider mix, and water). Music? The worst DJ ever… I don’t even want to get in to it… Suffice to say, he was annoying… Not him, but the way he DJ’d.

Not sure if I’ll be running this one again; only thing it had going for it was I saw some familiar faces, it was “home,” and it was easy to the family to get there. Oh, I also like that it was in the afternoon… I dig that.

Next up is the Virginia Run Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. Last year was a 20:03. Should be a bit warmer than today and I’m more familiar with the course so we’ll shoot for under 19 minutes.