Well, I did it. 4 months of training and I just completed my first 5k race. This seemed completely impossible when I started. Running for 3 minutes seemed like insanity.

The East River Park 5k was a great experience. The formal name of the race was the Continental Breakfast East River Park 5k, and as promised they had a nice assortment of bagels, donuts, fruit and drinks for us after the race.

The DIY feel of the NYC Runs crew that ran the race created a very low-key atmosphere that I liked. There were some impressive runners in the pack but nothing like the intimidating array of world-class runners that I would have run against at the Percy Sutton 5k that got canceled. The second place woman in today's race shamed us all by not only running in an amazing time but also juggling 3 balls the entire race.

I met all my goals: I finished the race pretty clearly in the middle of the pack, I avoided injury, and my unofficial time from my watch was 26:54 ( a pace of 8min 39 second per mile!). When the official times are posted, I hope that goes down by at a bit. Either way, it's my personal best for 5k. The runners world age-grade calculator http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/agegradingcalculator/0,7977,s6-238-277-4... puts me at the 52.7th percentile in my age group. That's very cool.

Today's photos: