It's about time!

Well, I think it's about time that I started writing things in this blog that are not necessarily scotch related. What with new baby and all, there hasn't been enough time to settle down with a nice dram. I did get a new bottle, however, a McClelland's Lowland, which is apparently a 5yo bottling of a Lowland distillery. The name of the distillery was changed for this bottling so the young age would not affect the name inversely. Most distilleries won't bottle anything less than 10yo. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but as it was free, even if it is crap it doesn't matter.

Anyway, a year ago at a conference in Monterey, CA I started jogging for excercise. I kept up with it through the winter on the treadmill, but outdoor running is really more enjoyable. At any rate, as a celebration of a year of running I decided that I should partake in a race. I chose the 2005 Cherry Creek Sneak as a starting point. I entered the 5-mile run, and Melissa participated in the 3.1-mile walk. My goal was to run the race in less than 44 minutes, which was the best time I've recorded (on my own) so far. A race is totally different than going out on your own for a run. There are so many people at the start that you really have to weave your way through at the beginning. As a result, my pace for the first mile was about 10 minutes. I knew I had to step it up for the rest of the race. By the second mile the pack was thinning out a bit and I was able to get back down to my 8:30 pace. But I was feeling really good and I knew I would be able to bring it up in the last miles. As a result each mile of my race was faster than the last, and I was able to burn over the finish line at 42:38! Having people out there to cheer you on is great too, although I missed Melissa as I thought she would be watching on the left side of the road and she was actually on the right side. What a run!

I was very happy to reach my goal for this race, now I have to think about what next. I'm thinking of doing a 10k at the Bolder Boulder in May, but we'll see about that. The eventual goal is to do a marathon, so this is the first step along that path. I'm really enjoying running, and it was wonderful to have my wife and son there taking part with me. 'Til next time!