12.7.17

2017 is shaping up in the right direction, with some encouraging signs heading into year's end:

I had a 35:49 first place finish at the Chatham in the Fall 10k on November 19. (full results here) Heather was the first female and picked up a free pair of shoes for her effort. I won a Cape Cod brewery tour. We had a great weekend away as a belated 13th-anniversary celebration. We had our longest run together in over 3 years - almost eleven miles on the rail trail the night we got down there.

This past Saturday, I joined my dad at the Reindeer Run 5k in nearby Beverly. In 2008 and 2009 I finished first in 15:38 (which I believe is the course record) and 15:47. For this year's event, I was hoping I might be able to crack 17-minutes and was pleasantly surprised with a 16:41 (.6) (full results here) It's a pretty fast course, but I haven't been doing much fast running, so after the first mile went by in 5:14, I was pretty much in uncharted territory. Hung on with a 5:19, a 5:29, and then blazed the last .1 at 4:52 pace, at least according to the Garmin. Won an apple pie.

Hopefully, if I continue to get some racing in, I'll be able to pull together some decent race reports. It's been a struggle to find the time and the words to keep the blog even semi-interesting. I wanted to get a Reach the Beach report up in September, because I had such a great time with Team Cutters, but I never finished the story...