Personal Best

 Soon, I hope to back fill some of the time and space that is so absent from this place.  I hope to catalog some Christmas photos, recount the celebration of Leo's 8th birthday, showcase a cooking challenge we took on in February, and remember and record some of the good moments of these past few hard, challenging, and dark months.

But I needed a place to start, today.  

I ran the Charlottesville 10 Miler this past weekend, the 6th time I've done this race.  I was excited to run this year with a friend from church, but... we didn't have a good plan in place on the morning of the race for meeting up, and we could not find each other.  Though I had been looking forward to having a partner to run with again, I did not mind in the least the challenge of running, solo.  I knew I could do it.  

My goal each year is the same:  beat my time from last year.  Given the obstacles I've faced this training season, including lots of snow, ice, and frigid temperatures, I wasn't confident I could beat my 1:23:49 time from 2014.

I killed it.  I ran this year's race in 1:19:44, shaving 4 minutes off my time, running sub-8's the entire way, and placing 13th in my age range,  and 328th (out of 1,715) overall.  

Perhaps best of all, just when I was feeling a little bit like I was dragging in mile 9, I spotted my buddy Tony up ahead and was able to catch up to him.  We finished the race together, and he gave me the encouragement I needed at the very end to finish so strong.  

Here's to personal bests.