50k pushups: Out of retirement

My work is a sponsor for Beat the Bridge and along with that they will pay employees entry fees. I can't pass free stuff and even though I would like to be running more before doing a race I decided to sign up. Friday during lunch I ran 4 miles to keep my legs loose before Sunday. I left my watch at home so I have no clue how fast I was going. Our exciting Friday night was renting Hotel Transylvania. I'm not very picky but didn't it was a stinker. In hindsight Adam Sandler hasn't faired too well in animated movies.

Saturday I got up early and went to work on the house. I ran some wire, ripped out some old wire, did some demo, then ran more wire before cleaning up a bit. We have an electrician coming up to work on the house next weekend so I'm pushing to get ready for him. I sat down and actually watched the Sounders game on TV last night and it was one of the most exciting games I can remember. Lots of goals (4-2 Seattle) and a number of other close chances.

Race day, we loaded up the troops and took off around 6:45. It was a madhouse at the stadium. There were 5000 runners along with a big contingent of walkers that started before the run. I had run 5 miles at lunch a few weeks ago and felt like I was pushing it even though I didn't warm up. I averaged 7:18 that day so I was hoping to be somewhere around 7:10 per mile today. I foolishly started way too far back in the pack and had to really fight through people the first mile. I was weaving in and out like crazy. But being so far back gave me an odd motivation to keep blowing past people. A couple hundred meters in a noticed a woman frantically passing people at the same pace I was. It was funny because we ended up running near each other then entire race and congratulated each other at the finish. I was really consistent and ran increasingly faster miles as the race progressed. My official time was 33:33 (6:45/mile). I was really surprised and felt great about the time.

I've only run a 5 mile race one time before this. That was FIFTEEN years ago. Can't believe how long ago that was and how old I am now. I googled and was able to find the results from that race. The Seafair Torchlight Parade run was super cool and I might try to do it again this year. You run through the parade route and there are thousands of people cheering. God bless the internet because I found my old result and can't believe that I beat my time from that race (34:21). This was the summer before my sr year and I hadn't done a lot of runs longer that 6 or 7 miles back then. Whereas now I do quite a bit of longer runs but don't have near the speed I used to.

http://athlinks.com/result/43981/64213/33077616/98210429

I wasn't the only one running a race today. We signed Urijah up for the 'diaper derby'. He had a huge grin running to Tasha. He is impossible not to love.