23:02

Was it worth it? Hardly but I made the monthly trek up to the Dolphin Club Race in San Francisco. The weather was beautiful. On the cool side but very little wind and bright sun. The 5K event was up by the yacht harbor right on the Presidio. I was a bit sleep deprived due to daylights savings time but I gave it my best 85-90% effort. I played chicken and didn't look at my stop watch until I crossed the finish line in 23:02. I noted that I was 22:16 at the 3 mile mark.

This was 7 seconds better than the last time. Nothing great. No dramatic leap forward. With my warm up and warm down I banked around 48 minutes of running.

It is what it is.

I am beginning to feel like everything that once worked is no longer working. Either my body is just used up and I really do need to become a self time junior jogger or I need to get used to pushing (which is very tough these days). Pushing would be time trials and tempo runs which obviously have a high possibility of injury. Ultimately when I am out there (like today) I am not in oxygen debt. I am not orgasmically gasping for air. I am simply out of sync. I never feel comfortable. I don't expect to perform at the levels of 3 years ago but I have dropped off rather steeply (of course age related drops are not always straight line).

I feel that I should be able to run a tempo effort in the 21's. Maybe not the low 21's but down under 22 minutes. I may have to claw my way back down. Ugh! More secret racing and time trials. Watching my weight and diet. And for what? To establish myself as a 2nd class age grouper.

I'll need to forget all that happened in the past. All of it. Treat this time like it's the first time. So go after the Asian guy and big Larry. No watch. No HRM. Then pick the next guy. Get under 20 on the Forbes Mill loop.

Get used to it.