Shooting Starr 4 miler

This year's Shooting Starr 4 miler was much more temperate than last year. Almost balmy compared to last year. I arrived late to the race (I only gave myself a half hour to get there and get registered - yipes!), register in a hurry, and jog over to the race start. As I'm waiting, I see Mark Zimmermann and chat with him for awhile. He's running with a first-timer today!

The course is almost a double loop. By almost, I mean that the first loop is a little shorter than the second. They needed to add a bit of distance to the second loop to make the course a complete 4 miles. I decided to run it comfortably and my goal for the race was to just run the whole thing without walking. I succeeded :)

Sligo creek trail during the first mile was icy, and I ran rather slowly to avoid slipping and falling. I totally missed the first mile marker - it was right after a snow bank, and I must have been concentrating on avoiding the snow. I saw the rest of the mile markers, and was splitting even 9:30s. I caught up to Don Libes on the last mile and we chatted for a little while heading towards the race finish. It was nice to run with him - I was starting to get tired, and he took my mind off the the running.

I finished (with no walk breaks) in 37:23 - a 9:21 average. I'm starting to feel like I'm getting into shape!