This is the planning time of year.  The health center at work has the Get Fit promotion, so to (attempt to) win prizes my wife and I are exercising regularly.  The weather has kept us off the road, but we are champing at the bit to get riding.  But mostly we are planning our summer vacations.

This year we have two bike rides in mind.  Another self organized trip in the Finger Lakes, and the Great Big FANY Ride.

There is still plenty of snow on the ground here, but we are going to try and get out for a ride this afternoon.

Shamrock Run 8K "Pre-season" Race!

Hi, everyone.  Although quite unusual for me, I just ran in an 8K race today, the annual Shamrock Run in Buffalo, NY.  This is the 2nd largest race in Buffalo, with 3800 finishers in the 8k, but 5500 including a 5K walk.

Since this is really "pre-season" for me, and I don't typically run much in January and February, my time was a minute or more slower than what I would normally expect.  I managed a respectable 32:23, or 6:32 per mile, and 5th out of about 185 in the 50 to 54 age group (only one month until a new age group!).  Due to the size of the race, they gave awards 10 deep, so I copped a frosted glass mug for my efforts.  Overall, I was show as 99th place, but my "gun" place was 104th.  With these larger races and chip timing, you can obviously end up in a different "net" place and time than your "gun" place and time.

I was pleased with the performance, and set 33 minutes as a goal, so I was happy to come in under that, and didn't feel too terrible, either.  The weather wasn't bad (for Buffalo).  About 25 degrees, light winds.

Anyway, since a guy at work invited me to run this, I started doing a little training in February, sooner than normal, so maybe this will help kick start my year!

And Steve and Chris, thanks for blogging!!  It's great to have someone other than Eric and me posting to each other!!

Mark


Shamrock Run Results are here

P.S.  Will add photos if I find any good ones later..........