I believe any race that starts within 3/10ths of a mile of your house requires you to run it. How much more convenient can that be?
So, to stay true to my philosophy, today I ran the Dr. Susan Love Annual Love Walk/Run 5k. In it's 4th year of existence, the event circles the Huntington area of Pacific Palisades. Dr. Love added the run to the previous walk only event. Starting at 10 AM feels late to most people who run, but the event ends with a number of lunch trucks serving free food. If I thought eating a hot dog at 10:30 AM seems strange, I cannot imagine one at 8:30 AM. (Actually, I did not partake of the lunch trucks at all.)
So, how did I do? Well, if they keep the field small enough (as this was), I can win my age group (40-49), which I did. Even better, I finished third overall with a time of 20:30. Not my fastest 5k, but since I had no chance to catch the 1 and 2 guys who lazy ran in 17 minutes, I sort of coasted the back half.
Sadly, Dr. Love mispronounced my name at the ribbon ceremony, but for a race I didn't know about until 10 days ago and ran sort of on a last minute basis, not bad at all. And all for a good cause promoting Breast Cancer research locally in the Palisades and Santa Monica. (Dr. Love resides down the street from the race's start.)
