I wish Dave was right, but I was pretty certain that at least three runners ahead of me appeared to be older than 40. It turns out that there were several, including two in their 50s. It was a fairly stacked and well-attended race, and I finished fifth out of 89 in my age group (M40-49), 19th out of 538 overall. A special benefit to me was that my mother, Toni Witte, was in town for Thanksgiving and attended the race. That's her on the left, next to my sister-in-law Kathy Doan who ran the 5K, my brother Martin, and me.
Thus ended my race season of 2008. I had a great year even though I fell short of all my goals. I hoped to win 10 medals, but won nine. If I had run one of three or four races that I avoided because I thought my chances of placing were slim, I would have had 10. Of course, there was also the disaster in Livermore. I also failed to meet my goals of 17:30 in the 5K, 36:00 in the 10K, 1:20 in the half marathon and 2:50 in the marathon.
The above times may always be out of reach, but I am very fortunate. I feared I had seriously injured myself at the Napa Valley Marathon in March, running on a left foot inflamed with plantar fasciitis. But since my podiatrist fitted me for orthotics, my feet haven't been a problem. I was able to run consistently, and my mom got to see me race twice. Maylee ran several kids races and enjoyed riding in the jogging stroller, and joining me for sprints and jumping exercises.
My wife Mandy deserves a lot of credit for being patient and supportive when my runs shift more of the family duties to her in the morning. It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a lot of people to enable a grown man to act like one.
Now I'm in my winter marathon training phase, which involves a lot of long, dark and cold runs. It's hard to get motivated, but I'm halfway through the program in preparation for the Surf City Marathon on Super Bowl Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment