We dragged ourselves off a plane from LA on Saturday morning after a few long days. The idea of waking up Sunday and racing a 10k trail race with elevation wasn’t too appealing. So, I set about looking for something a little easier for this weekend. And, as luck would have it, I found the Firefly 5k starting Saturday night at 7:30pm.

Novelty races are supposed to be fun for the kids. In this case, the gimmick is flashing lights and neon glow sticks, and a start and finish in the mighty San Jose State Spartans football stadium. The video looks good from the website:

In reality, it was a pretty lame experience. We started at 7:45pm: still bright daylight and sunglasses weather. We ran on pavement (what Australians call asphault) for 3.1 miles or 5ks, and finished in the sunshine in the stadium. So much for the lights and neon glow.

The race itself was 1.6 miles out and 1.6 miles back with a little “dogleg” to make it a little more depressing. Hot, hard, flat, and roads. Maybe I just needed to lighten up a bit (pun intended) — and walk or something. Anyway, I thought it was lame. Net result, Selina was I think the 3rd woman over the line and I was top 10, but it wasn’t designed to be a competitive race. The time was somewhere in the low 23s.

Anyway, that’s race #24 in the books, and another weekend to plan. I’m still about 5 races behind plan, but that just means 5 weekends with two races any time in the next 5 months. That feels ok. The trick is to stay healthy and not to miss any more weekends.

Hi! Hello! Yes, I am still running. Yes, I know it’s been a slow couple of months. But, hey, I have run 23 races this year, and that’s more than most people — though I do know a couple of people from around here who are on track to 80+ races. Crazy.

Anyway, today we ran the Lighting the Way 5k.  My time wasn’t great, about 23:08 (they didn’t have a timing chip), but it sure felt great to be out there racing and to pull up without pain and swelling in my left foot. I’ve got a bit of an ankle and Achilles niggle, and I’ve been managing it carefully — so carefully that I dropped out of the 10k trail run I’d planned last week.

This was the 5th annual Lighting the Way 5k. It’s a great little race with a fairly small field (though it was sold out!), and it’s the most sensible race I’ve run at Vasona Lake. This time, we just started near the railroad, and ran out 1.6 miles to Lark Ave, and turned around and ran back. Sensible. Much better than all the ducking, weaving, and getting lost that other races do in Vasona Lake (scroll down in this story and you can read about it).

It was a well-organized race, and not too competitive. I suspect most of the folks weren’t serious, and maybe there was more competition in the 10k. I came 4th. Selina was the 2nd woman. If you can do that in 23+ minutes, you know it ain’t too serious.

Anyway, great to be back. If I wake up feeling great, who knows I might run another race tomorrow. Might see you then, or next week at the latest!

Some days, you realize just how much of a Regular Joe you are. I ran the Morgan Hill Freedom Fest 5k this morning, and got absolutely crushed by some of the Bay Area’s elite 5k runners. The male winner won in 14:42, and the female winner in 16:40.

The current men’s world record is 12:37. That’s two minutes faster than today’s winner, though he would have been the world record holder if he’d run 14:42 in around the year 1910. But whatever: 14:42 is seriously fast — 4:44 per mile, and that’s the average over 3.1 miles. I can only dream.

I’ve had a goal in my head for years of running under 20:00. I’d be happy to just run 19:59 once in my life. I know that when I was about 28 years old, I ran 3.1 kilometers in about 12:35 once or twice. If you do the math, that’s about 19:30 for a 5km if I could have kept the pace up over a 5km race. I just never quite got around to trying that pace in a race. And now I’m 45 years old.

My best time this year is 21:06, if you don’t count the Double 5k that I ran in 20:15. The Double 5k is broken down into a 3km race, a one hour rest, and a 2k race, so it doesn’t really count. A time of 21:06 is a long way off 20:00. If I want to get there, it’s probably time to drop a few pounds, train three or four times a week, and get serious. What do you think?

Anyway, I digress. The race this morning was flat, fast for everyone else, and a great temperature. I’ve been having ankle troubles, and I think I was just a little “off” physically this morning too. The bottom line was a pretty average time of 22:56. I was annoyed at myself, but I guess I should be happy to have run race #22 this year and got out and run on a beautiful July 4 day! Happy 4th to all of you here in the USA.

See you next time — I’ll be running a 10k trail race next week that looks *gorgeous*.