Yesterday morning I ran the IKEA Half Marathon. It was very humid, which was less than ideal, but between the light drizzle and the temperature being about 20° cooler than last year, the conditions were pretty good. Things got off to a bad start for me, though, because the organizers banned iPods this year. That really pissed me off. Consequently, I may boycott this and any other race that bans iPods.
Anyhow, I’d hoped to finish under 2 hours, but I’m not disappointed with my 2:03:07 (9:24 pace). I wonder how the use of an iPod would have affected my time. Also, I had to pee at about 4.5 miles, which cost me at least a minute. Damn you, enlarged prostate!.
On September 1, I ran the Gatorade Steelers 5K. I finished in a reasonable 25:27 (8:12 pace). I want to break 25:00, so I guess I’ll have to do it at Run Shadyside.
The race started at least 15 minutes late because we had to listen to umpteen introductions of honored guests (yawn) and wait for late-comers to register. The course was incredibly boring. If I thought looping around a parking lot was exciting I’d watch NASCAR. The biggest disappointment, though was that the mayor beat me with a time of 24:34. He’s running the Great Race, and I will not let him beat me again.
It’s on, Mayor Opie, and you’re going down.
On August 25, I ran the Run Around the Square 5K. Since I’d run about 9 miles the day before (in preparation for the IKEA Half Marathon), I treated the race as a tempo run. I finished in 27:59 (9:01 pace), which isn’t great (and is actually kinda slow for a tempo run), but at least I beat the mayor, who finished in 29:18. 😉