Starting off in the right direction

It seems that every year I say that I am going to write more on this blog.  And every year I find myself not writing half as much as I intended to write.  This is my attempt at writing more.  I am not going to give long drawn out what has been happening since the last time I have wrote.  That would be just boring and mundane. 

Instead, I will give an update how things have been going this year.  First, my goal this year is to run 2500 miles.  So far, this has been kicking my butt.  RunningAHEAD.com has a new widget that gives you the ability to have a personal pace bunny to keep track of your goal and how you are doing with respect to that goal.  This has been difficult because the weather has not been as it was last year.  I have managed to get a couple of long runs in on the weekends.  These have given me the ability to stay close to the bunny.  I feel that if I can keep it close through the winter when the spring and summer comes I should be able to get a lead on the bunny. 

Today I ran my first race since the Turkey trot back in November.  It was the Freeze Your Buns Run in St. Peter.  I did not have a time goal.  I knew that I was in reasonable shape and should be able a 6:45-7:00min pace.  I wanted to run the first mile completive and see how it goes from there.  The first mile saw a couple of guys jump out and try and take control of the pace.  The pace was not beyond my abilities so I stayed back, controlling my pace so that I would still save some energy for the little hills in the second mile.  It was around mile one that I caught the leader and hung by him for a few seconds. It was apparent that he was not into holding the pace he was at (he might have gone out too fast) so I took over and tried my best to keep my pace up.  I slowed down from my first mile pace about 25seconds.  This slowdown is expected but I was still nervous that someone would come from behind and get me in the next mile.  I was able to maintain the pace for the third mile and started to push to the finish in the last mile.  Still not knowing where any of the other runners were I was trying to enjoy the moment and still run fast.  In the end, I was able to pull off the win.  My time was 25:31 for four miles, not bad for this time of the year.

The year has just started and things are looking good.  Win or no Win the level of fitness seems to be there and that is what matters.