My first 5K

Normally I don't run for any sort of competitive purpose. Ok, so I've never run for any sort of competitive purpose. I took the opportunity this time, though, so that I'd have other runners to help me push my pace.

I'm pretty out of shape right now but I can still do a 7:30 minute mile pretty easily, on hills. When I was in good shape 2 years ago, I my best time on my toughest 1 mile run (which was all uphill for the last half mile, on 14th St heading south towards Walter Reed if anybody knows the area), I could do 6:40. Which makes me reasonably certain I could've broken 6:00 on a flat course.

But I digress. I did manage to come in 76th out of about 225 people, with a 8:02 pace, and 11th out of 22 in my age group. I figure that's pretty good considering that besides being somewhat out of shape I have a condition called enthesopathy, an arthritis-like condition that affects insertion points of the ligaments and tendons. Originally I thought it was fibromyalgia but that turned out not to be the case. I have a dickens of a time with it because my Achilles and psoas never seem to loosen up anymore, and they're always painfully tight when I run.

I'm obviously not competing with the race winners, who came in with the insane 5:15 pace, but as far as pushing myself I feel really good about my performance.