Yesterday, in Fort Worth’s Gateway Park, I did my second footrace of the fall: the Viking Run 5K. The weather was gorgeous: sunny, calm, and 57º Fahrenheit. I felt good during my long warm-up through the trees, but not so good during the race. My goal was to break seven minutes. I did the first mile in 6:57 and the second in 6:57. I thought I had it in the bag. But evidently I slowed during the final 1.1 miles. I finished in 21:47.59, which is a mile pace of 7:00.85. Damn! Had I run 2.65 seconds faster, I would have achieved my goal. Then again, it was a chip start. The runners started 20 feet behind the electronic sensor. My chip time—the time between when I crossed the sensor at the start and when I crossed it again at the finish—was 21:43.6. That computes to a mile pace of 6:59.56. Yeehaa! Thank goodness for technology. Incredibly, I ran faster two months ago during the Labor Day 5K, when it was hot and humid. I hope to increase my speed as the weeks and months go by. Bicycling is almost done for the year, which means I can concentrate on running.

The good news is that I won a trophy. I finished second of 15 men in my age group (50-54), 21st of 130 males, and 23d of 241 runners overall. This is my 39th award (trophy or medal) in 116 races (not counting finisher’s medals). I win something about every third race I do.

Addendum: Here is the New York Times story about today’s New York City Marathon.

Addendum 2: According to this New York Times story of a month ago, Lance Armstrong intended to run today’s marathon. I didn’t see any mention of him in the news story. If anyone finds anything, let me know. Lance said he learned a lot from his first marathon in 2006. I think that if he trains properly, he can run a 2:40 marathon.