Recent Running Stuff

Yesterday morning, the Five Points of Life Marathon and Half-Marathon races were (simultaneously) held here in Gainesville. I had been considering entering the half-marathon (13.1 miles), but a number of personal factors weighed in against it. I let it go by, but by all accounts the race was a big success. The weather was perfect, and there were more than 1000 runners (most of them just running the half-marathon distance). I saw in today’s local newspaper The Gainesville Sun that they had filled an entire page in the sports section giving the individual results for the races, even broken down by gender and age categories. Only one problem: they completely left out the half-marathon results for men ages 40 and up! Which would have excluded me had I run! Let’s see if they make the correction tomorrow and print the rest of the results. I suppose that I should be happy that the Sun at least partially published the results of this race. They NEVER publish local running race results the entire rest of the year, regardless who is sponsoring it or for what charity the race is promoting. {Addition on 2/24: The Gainesville Sun did print the rest of the results the following day.}

The longest distance that I have run since 1975 was the eight miles I ran last October on a training session. But I could probably have endured through the half-marathon had I not cut back on my running recently due to health concerns. After those concerns were completely alleviated through exhaustive medical tests, I was given a resounding green light (how’s that for mixed metaphors) to resume running. And I am running, although I am a bit disappointed that I ended up passing by two longer distance races this year.

I have found something resembling the nearly 3-mile “block” that I used to run around during the 1970s in Davie, Florida. My current training block, which is also nearly three miles in length, takes me down four streets: NW 31 Drive, NW 16 Avenue, NW 22 Street, and NW 8 Avenue. I still have to contend with a little traffic, and I am almost always running on a hard surface (unlike with the Davie block). But I don’t ever have to stand around waiting to cross any big intersection, either. And sometimes that grassy surface can conceal small holes that could twist my ankle should I land in one of them.

Anyway, I’m still plugging away at my running and hope to enter a few five-kilometer races this spring. And if my training progresses the way I want it to, I may enter some longer races should the opportunity arise. Not that my local newspaper could care less (about my running or anyone else’s).