From: stevect@attglobal.net (stevect@attglobal.net)
Subject: 1st Race
Date: 2001-12-10 00:59:04 EST

Hi all,

My conditioning had been from swimming last spring and 11 miles 
regularly on skates at a linear park here in CT since then.  Somehow,
I found myself in a shopping mode two weeks ago, and I finally found a 
pair of shoes that fit me.  Forgetting the varied reasons that I never
"took" to running, such as a heel spur and severe arch and ankle pain,
I went out last Saturday and ran 4.6 miles!  This was mostly along the
edge of the same linear park, which was nice and soft.  Gone were
the pains and spurs and every other ghost and goblin that had haunted
me since high school.  

This past Tuesday, I ran approx. 2.5 miles in Lexington, MA, while
traveling, and began to get the idea that I might be pushing things,
but I felt ready for a 5K.  So . . . I found out that two of my brothers
were going to run in the Christopher Martin's Christmas Run for 
Children today, and I'm happy to report that I finished, and that I
can foresee a lot room for improvement: 
Unofficial splits were 8:57 / 9:35 / 10:25 = 28:57  Official time
was 29:36, or so.

At the start, I felt elated that I was actually participating in a
road race, and had to hold back to insure that I would finish.  One
brother is a regular runner, and was up with the pack, but I ran most
of the way with my other brother, who provided some valuable advice.
He hadn't run in a long time, so at about the 1-1/2 mile mark, I
felt the pace slowing and had to pull ahead.  Little did I know that
it was to continue to slow . . . for me anyway!

Well the feeling of actually finishing such an endeavor was great.
I would like to work on having more consistent split times.

Thanks for reading my long post, and thanks for all that I've 
gathered here while lurking.

Steve