Here I am at the Village Chapel 5K fun run in Sept. 09. This was the
last block of the race....just before I thundered to a 32:37 finish.
Call the Olympic Committee ;^) [Thanks to MaryJane & Don Smallwood for snapping this pic of me.]
Deja vu all over again. Here I am at the same point in the race in 2010, looking, um, a bit
rough around the edges. It was almost 80 degrees and full sun that day. Still, I
somehow managed to complete the race without embarrassing myself in public. (Well, I did stab myself with a safety pin while putting my race number on, but we won't go into that.) Did I mention it was really hot that day? My finish time was 32:06. Once again,
thanks to MaryJane & Don Smallwood for snapping this pic of me.
Next up in 2010, I tackled the Roundtown Classic 5K. Had a blast! The Classic
makes 2 loops around Mary Virginia Crites Park in Circleville--a pleasant course that alternates between a paved path and
gravel trails that run through woods. And there was quite a crowd.
On paper, my finish time of 33:47 would
seem to be a poorer performance, but the Classic has some serious (for me, anyway) hills in it. The weather was as good as you can hope
for in July--it was in the low 70s, and, thank God, cloudy and windless. Considering the hills, I would classify this run as my strongest
performance so far this season. Thanks to Ralph & Debbie Large for snapping this picture of me post-race.
Here we all are at the beginning of the Village Chapel Freedom
Run in 2011. Yep, it's raining. And the longer we ran, the harder it rained. No matter.
We all had fun. And what a difference from last year! I handled the distance much more
comfortably this year! Thanks to Bob Stickel for forwarding this picture of me.
A few weeks later, here we all are
again at the Roundtown Classic 5k. The weather was perfect and almost a carbon copy of last year: cloudy,
about 70 degrees, and very light wind. I'd been training on this course and so it was no
surprise that I felt much more comfortable when the starting gun went off. The hills didn't seem nearly as bad as
they did last year. And my finishing time reflected that--I knocked almost 2 minutes off last year's time! Thanks to
Janet Morris for snapping this picture of me.
OK, now I'm getting brave! I decided to try
the Circleville Classic 5-Miler. Once again, the weather gods smiled on us: it was 30 degrees (OK, that is a bit nippy!)
and sunny, with very light winds. I didn't know what the course would be beforehand, but a few of the folks I met
that morning before the race assured
me that it was a flat run. And for the most part it was. I did have one advantage: the course
wound through Northwood Park, where I typically do most of my training, so at least all
the streets were familiar territory. Before I knew it, we were at 3 miles, and then 4 miles, and
then it was just that long last mile to the finish. Wow! I actually finished this! And my 51:47 finishing
time was way better than I could have hoped for! Thanks to Don & MaryJane Smallwood for snapping this picture of me after
the run.