Today is a rest day, and I’m going to rest. Tomorrow is another story. There’s a race in town, the Keep Austin Weird 5K. Its also the start of the AustinFIT marathon training season. In the morning, I can go down and do my two mile “placement” run, and chat with the coaches. Or I may sleep in, and just sign up next weekend - that’s a valid option.

Back to the race though. One of the hardest things about my run yesterday was stopping it at 2 miles. I was running at my pre-injury 5K pace, which didn’t feel too bad, and it was so tempting to see if I could extend out for three. Following this schedule may be hard in many different ways! Anyway, the race. Its a lousy race to run fast in - there are crowds, costumes, heat (its at 5pm and the weather is forecast at 91 degrees with 70 percent humidity, with a chance of thunderstoms following an hour later), dogs - you name it. Then there are the stops:

• Baconman & Donut Stop
• The Best Wurst - Hot Dog Stop
• Oslo’s - Stuffed Jalapeno Stop
• Opal Divines - Cracked Pepper Fry Stop
• Mr. Gattis - Pizza Stop
• La Zona Rosa - Beverage Stop
• Amy’s - Ice Cream Stop
• (also 2 Water Stops)

I was originally thinking of doing it twice - once to get through it for time, once slowly for the entertainment value. I know some folk who are just walking it for grins. At this point, if I do run in it, I’d probably just do it in some sort of costume (maybe my utilikilt) and do sprints from stop to stop. Or something. I probably shouldn’t do it at all - there’s no real point to it from a training basis after all.

Except… except that yesterday I did two miles at my previous 5K race pace. Which I know was slower than I could have done, but still - there’s a part of me that wants to go out and try to set a new PR in this, the worst possible choice for a 5K PR race. I probably won’t … but I’m sure tempted.

Decisions, decisions…

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