Sunday, 12/13/2015 to Saturday, 12/19/2015 - Reindeer Run 5K

I ran twice (yes, only twice) this week, 4.5 miles.

Sunday, 12/13/2015: Rest day

I was gimpy after 15.17 miles of the "Winter" Trail Festival the day before so I stayed in. I watched the Buffalo Bills - Philadelphia Eagles game. The Bills found another way to lose, 20-23, link here. Their slim playoff hope became even slimmer.

Monday, 12/14/2015 to Friday, 12/18/2015: 4 days of OT and a rest day.

I worked OT on Monday through Thursday and Friday was the usual rest day before a race on Saturday.

Friday was a kind of bittersweet day. It was my last day at Synergy Global Solutions. I had worked there since 4/13/2009. I had been lucky enough to have managed the network printers of Koday CG&S, then ITT, then ITT Space Systems Division, and then Harris. Harris decided to go with Ricoh and line of printers instead which was kind of a forgone conclusion since all the other Harris facilities are using Ricoh printers. It took a bit of doing but I will start for Ricoh on Monday morning to manage the Ricoh printers that I have been working OT to put in for the past three weeks. It has been choatic because there was largely no project plan, just "seat of the pants" learning about Ricoh printers and little education of the user community of the change.

Saturday, 12/19/2015: 2 runs of 1.35 and Reindeer Run 5K, 27F, 54% RH, 12 mph W wind, wind chill 16F, sunny

Today was my third Reindeer Run 5K, the second on the new course that doesn't run on what is left of the Inner Loop. I was up early like usual and cut it kind of close when I started to get ready at 6:50 AM. I was out the door at 7:20 AM. I felt the wind and went right back inside for a short sleeve tech to put under my Brooks 1/4 zip long sleeve tech. I arrived down at the Strong Museum of Play (SMOP) in  about 15 minutes.

It took a bit of gumption to get out of the car. I know it's been warm this winter this winter but this up and down in temperature takes a bit to get used to. I got out for a 1.35 mile warmup run at 8:23, link here.

I met up with Prem Kumar before the start. He told me that he had hurt his knee during last week's Winter Trail Festival (WTF) ... he had run Snow Cheap #1 on Wednesday and was at today's Reindeer Run 5K. Runners are a different breed ... lol! I wished him luck and made my way to the start line. I lined up in my usual sport about 10 yards behind the leaders.


And ... we were off! I eased my way up to speed while I eased my way around slower runners. It was cold and I could definitely feel the wind when it was in my face.

The start ... photo courtesy of Kim Smith

I concentrated on just running and having a good time. I tried to keep up my pace during mile 2 which is where I usually have a slow mile.

Coming up on mile 2 ... photo courtesy of Barb Boutillier

Just past the Freddie - Sue Bridge ... photo courtesy of Kim Smith

Soon enough we were heading back to the SMOP. I picked up a bit ... onward ... and done in 22:12. I met up with Prem and found that he had run a 22:11. He ended up being 3rd in him M40-44 age group which he found out after he went home.

Post race selfie with the antler on!

I was happy with my time of 22:12. It turned out to be my slowest 5K of my 9 in 2015. Geek alert:
My splits were pretty good: 7:14, 7:17, 7:01 and 6:40 over the last 0.11 mile. There is always good grub after this race: subs, cookies and some nutrition bars. I found out that I was 9th in my age group so I didn't stay for the awards. I was 118th out of 1694, link here. I was 9th out of 59 in my M50-59 age group, link here.

Soon enough, I was home with the obligatory coffee and my feet up in the recliner. My 58th and last race of 2015 was in the books. I don't think I will race as many next year. It is going to be hard to weed out some races. I did like each one of them!