After more than a year plagued with injuries, I toed the start line of my first race in close to 11 months yesterday.


Start line and the Capitol

And the good news is, I didn't have the worst performance ever.

My friends Ryan and Abe had been planning to run the St. Paddy's Day 8K for the last several weeks and had been asking me to sign up too, but I was hesitant to pay for yet another race that I might not be able to run.

But I've been able to do some pretty decent workouts in the last few weeks -- nothing that amounted to actual training, but enough to prove that I would probably be able to finish the race.


Abe, me, Mrs. Fiora, Ryan and Kim before the race

So I registered Friday night and Sunday morning, I met Ryan, Abe, Ryan's mom and Kim in Freedom Plaza for the race.

It was chilly at the start and the gun didn't go off on time, so I was pretty stiff in that first mile.


Probably my favorite picture from the entire race

I tried to get myself to loosen up and somewhere near mile 2 I felt myself settle into a pace. It was probably a faster pace than I should have been holding, but it didn't feel too bad.

Not long after, I found Ryan and Abe in the crowd. We'd all started together, but then lost each other in the rush.

We ran together for a bit of the race and I was entertained by Abe singing along to his music.

Somewhere near mile 4, Abe stopped to tie his shoe, but I kept pushing on because I could feel the pace getting to me. I knew if I stopped to walk there might not be any re-starting.

My legs were pretty much toast as I tried to pick it up in the final stretch, but I was so determined to finish the race in under 45 minutes.

I crossed the finish line with an official time of 44:26, good for an 8:57 average per mile. Pretty solid performance for my first race back I'd say.


Everyone after we finished!

I celebrated my run by heading over to College Park for some brunch before watching the Terps knock off #5 UVA in overtime in our last ACC regular season game at home!



That game was something else and the atmosphere in the Comcast Center rivaled some Duke games I've been at. I really can't think of a better way to peace out of the ACC.

So long all-Carolina conference.