My New Year's Day Walking and Running Events

This first day of 2025 saw two special holiday events for walkers and runners take place in Gainesville.  Early on, with temperatures in the low 50s at the 7:30 am start, the Depot Parkrun held its traditional New Year's Day 5K.  The organizers promoted the event by encouraging us all to wear pajamas to it, and Melissa and I complied...along with several others.  I'm proud of Melissa taking this positive step of doing her first 5K walk since last May before her breast cancer surgery, and I look forward to her walking in more events as the year progresses.  Later at noon, the Florida Track Club held its own event, the Frank Shorter Mile run, with the course primarily being a repeated loop on the east end of Westside (Albert Massey) Park, going through a quiet residential neighborhood.  I signed up for it because the last time I was timed in a public one-mile race was in the fall of 1974, during my conditioning physical education class at Broward Community College...back then I enjoyed my fastest mile (5:25) of a middling running career.  I knew today I'd be much slower, but then again I'm 50 years older!  The race was very well staged with a lot of positive vibes going around, and I started out running hard.  So hard, in fact, that early on I began to wonder if maybe I was running too hard, but no, I was able to maintain my pace and even increase it at the end, finishing with a time of 8:25.  The noontime temperature had only risen to 58, so all in all, the running (and walking) conditions today were optimal for me and Melissa.  Click HERE to view today's Depot Park run 5K results and HERE to see the Frank Shorter Mile results...