Last week I was in the Atlanta area from Wednesday through Saturday. My running for the past 4 weeks has been going great and I have been looking for a 5K race to test myself. On Saturday I planned to drive home, but when I found a 5K race about 5 minutes from my daughter's house, I couldn't resist entering.

 

Based on my recent training, I thought I'd be able to run somewhere between 8:20-8:40 pace and that was my plan. The course was out and back and as soon as we started down a rather long hill, I knew that I'd be lucky to make it back up that hill without walking. The entire course was a series of ups and downs which made for a difficult race since all my training has been on flat terrain. About half way through the race, I was tempted to walk the bigger hills, but I convinced myself that I'd change my pace goal to the goal of finishing without walking. I was able to do that and I did win my age group (60-64) with an insignificant time. According to my Garmin, the distance was just short of 3 miles and my pace was just under 9 minutes. I'm pleased with the finish place and the time is OK considering the hilly course.