I can still do it! After a walk at last year’s race due to a cycling injury (was lucky to not have another this year… instead I was just missing a bit of skin off my nose – mountain biking is hard), I made it a point to race this year. My preparation was a short run a week for about a month and a half. It proved enough.

This was the 7th Race For Hope we have attended and our 3rd without Mom. Due to a scheduling conflict she’d have fully approved of, I was the only family member able to make it. Having dealt with my own share of stuff lately I didn’t do a great job recruiting and only gathered a handful of teammates, but we still managed to raise $1910 for brain cancer research. This year was also the 20th running of the race, which I believe has now brought in something close to $30 million? So amazing. Couple the great cause with a course that any race director would lose their mind over getting, and you’ve got what I’ll defend as one of the best races in the US that nobody knows about.

Unfortunately with my very abbreviated training plan (20 miles), I did not get a chance to do any speed-work or even a mile at pace to figure out what would be reasonable. The strategy I settled on was to go out at the pace I ran previously (you know, when I used to run five years ago) and see how long I could hold it.

That pace would be six minutes per mile and not only would I hold it, I ended up beating it and feeling like I could have gone faster. I ended up running 18:28 (5:58/mi) for the measured 5k (19:12 by the course, which was made .1mi long in 2014) – good for 12th place of the 1300 runners. I’m kicking myself a bit as I allowed two younger fellows sprint past me at the line without putting up any fight – Top 10 was so close! They didn’t break things down by age group, but after some e-stalking I figured out I was 3rd in the 30-39/old man age group. Lots of youngsters out there! In previous years there has been a survivor who beats me handily, but he didn’t this year… Sad thoughts, but hopefully he had something else going on and continues to be in relatively good health; while all the survivors present are a huge inspiration, seeing someone go through what they’re going through and managing to maintain peak fitness is something extra special.

So… I can still run and that’s sweet. Lacking the supporting muscles I ended up hurting badly for a few days, but… yeah, sweet. I’m halfway tempted to see how many miles my body can handle and get to racing again, but the other half of me knows that’s playing with fire. What I do think is clear is I likely have more potential on foot than pedal. Things that make you go “hrmmm.”

A huge thank you to our team donors and participants, and a fist raised to the sky for Mom.

Mark your calendars for May 6, 2018 and I’ll see you just down the street from the White House!

Posts from previous years: 2014, 2013