Late on Friday night, one of my drinking / poker buddies told me he was running in the Cary Road Race (10k) starting at 8.30a the next day. I switched from beer to water (admittedly a bit late) and decided to enter as well.

The start is at Koka Amphitheater, just over a mile from my house so I jumped on my bike and headed down to register. It was a little chilly – but otherwise an awesome Spring morning.

I had no real target time or pace (didn’t even wear a watch) I just went along for the run. It’s basically two laps of a circuit starting with a decent hill.

My final time was 52.08 – that’s an 8.24 pace. That doesn’t break any records but was actually pretty fast for me. A 10k is a nice run – not long-enough to get really knackered but long enough to settle into a pace.

So now I have something to beat next year !

The only time I’ve really done any regular running was over a decade ago (notably before kids) – I ran the Bristol (UK) Half Marathon 3 times (98, 99 and 2000) as well as a few other shorter runs here and there (most recently the Los Gatos Dammit Run). But I’ve really never been much of a runner and find it pretty boring (more so on a treadmill) – I find cycling much more engaging and a much easier way to ‘turn off’; but cycling needs a lot more investment.

Over the Christmas break I signed up for the Tobacco Road Half Marathon and put together a 10 week training plan. I finished the first week this morning and am slightly ahead of my target. That’s fortunate because my plan (and the time available) has absolutely no contingency for injury or travel. And you guessed it – next week I’m traveling – the hotel has a small poorly equipped gym with exactly one running machine and the temperature in Boston isn’t going to be above freezing until August. If I was a runner – I’d be a fair-weather runner at that.