Men's 4 Miler

I've been trying to get back up to speed with my running over the past couple weeks. I've been encouraged that I don't have any trouble running a couple of miles, although my pace is much slower than it was. So this weekend, I asked the family to come out and watch me run the men's four miler. It's a race to benefit the UVA department of Urology's prostate cancer program, so I felt like it would be a cool one for me to participate in.

It was very cold this morning. Jane got up early (as usual) and the temp was 16 degrees on the front porch. But after a hot shower, a couple of cups of coffee, and making some cocoa for the kids, I was ready to run. We all bundled up and headed out to Free Union for the race. I ran into some of my friends from work there - which is 

All in all, it went well - I think I ran it in about 30 mins - a 7:30 min/mile pace. I looked it up and in '06, I was at 6:13 (24:51).  So I wasn't ecstatic about the time, but I figure that I get a few points for being 5 weeks outta chemo.

Jane and the kids were great - they cheered me on as I crossed the finish line - seeing their faces after the race meant a lot to me.

Margaret's birthday was yesterday, so afterwards we took everyone to the Discovery Museum and lunch at Revolutionary Soup to celebrate. Now we're back home and watching Muppet Treasure Island on the sofa.  This is relaxation.

I'm a lucky man to be able to run this race. In the next one I hope to be a little faster.