My April 2021 Running and Walking Report

In April I ran a total of 107 miles, with 4.8 miles being my longest single run...and I ran on every day of the month.  For walking, I covered 125 miles in the same time, the vast majority of it coming at work...my job involves an awful lot of walking.  I finally got to participate in a public running race after joining the Florida Track Club and entering their April 3rd 5K event at Hogtown Creek Headwaters Park in northern Gainesville...as it turns out, the closest race ever to my home.  I ran it slow and easy, just happy to be back in the mix...although with the ongoing pandemic races are still few and far between.  I'm thinking of running in the Florida Track Club's Friday evening track meet at Cone Park in eastern Gainesville next month on the 7th...they have a number of runs to chose from including 400 meters and 5K: these are the two I'm leaning toward at the moment.  The last time I ran in a track race was in April, 1973. Although I initially thought they were going to emulate the kind of track and field meets from my old high school time, there are no field events like pole vaults, long jumps or shot put.  And even with the purely track events, there are no sprint races like 100 or 200 meters, the shortest event being 400 meters.  When I was a kid, to me running was synonymous with all-out sprinting, going as fast as I could until I pooped out...my forte was the 50-year dash while the 600-yard run they used in high school for physical fitness tests was to me a very long distance.  By the ninth grade they were having us do mile runs, though, and by the time I trained with the track team in early 1973 I was finally beginning to learn the concept of pacing myself: that was crucial because our regimen included intense interval training as well as ten-mile cross-country runs...