Last Race of the Year

I made a quick stop at Front Running Sports yesterday to pick up my race packet for the Candy Cane 5k on Saturday. This will be my last race of the year which somehow makes me a little sad even though I’m planning to run the Deleon Springs Half Marathon on January 2.

My luck with bib numbers continues as I drew a nice even number 50 for this race.

It’s been several months since I ran a 5k so I’m interested to find out what impact all this long distance running has on my speed in a short race.

This will also be my first 5k in my Saucony Kinvaras. These shoes make me feel faster from the moment I lace them up so I have high expectations for how well they will perform.

The weather warmed up a bit over the last few days. The temperature should be comfortable in the mid 50’s for the race and there is a slight chance of rain. Hopefully we will get lucky with the rain.

The race course will be the same as the Run for Africa 5k I ran in July. I finished that race in 24:10 and placed 5th in my age group, the closest I ever came to an age group award. The course isn’t optimal for a PR because of some tight turns that cost precious seconds but I have improved a lot since then. My current PR is 23:07 and my best mile split is 7:19. With any luck, I’ll be able to improve on both of those numbers tomorrow.

I've been running well the past two weeks and seem to have completely recovered from my marathon three weeks ago.  On the other hand, I slacked a little bit with my training this week and overindulged last night at the West Volusia Running Group's Christmas Party.  It was worth it though.  We had a great time and the hosts did an awesome job organizing the event.  With about 60 people in attendance, I'm sure it took a lot of work.