Last year, I had several running goals and hit all of them.

I also got a stress fracture in my foot at no extra charge. Actually, the medical bills cost me something, so that’s not exactly true. I wonder if there is a market for a used one of these:

This year, the list is pretty short: avoid the stress fracture. So far I think things are going well. I have logged about 100 fewer miles (187 vs. 289), and have not been as focused on pushing my longer runs to unnecessary lengths.

Of course that means I’m not nearly as fit as I was last year. That was clear this morning when I ran the Herndon Festival 5k and totally crashed in the third mile.

Last year I placed second in my age group in 21:34, which was a personal best at the time. This time around I struggled to finish in 22:25 (7:06, 6:41, 7:54, :42), though it probably didn’t help that it was a pretty warm/humid morning.

That second mile was really where I went wrong. At the start of the race I saw the woman I passed right near the finish last year and figured it would be a good idea to pace off of her. But she slowed down as we went up a hill in mile 2, and I just couldn’t resist blowing by. Clearly I paid for that in mile 3 and had to just keep the feet moving through the end.

I don’t have anything else on the race calendar right now. Looking a bit ahead to the fall for a half marathon, with Denver as the early leader. At least it will be cooler for that one.