Here is a picture of me staggering across the finish line in the 10K I ran on June 1 (see post of that day). As the timing clock shows, my time was actually slightly better than what I had recorded on my watch.

Coming big day

My daughter, Christy, is being married July 5 in Colorado. I am tremendously, indescribably excited about this. We love her fiance, Reggie Loewen, and think very highly of him. We are very much looking forward to our trip to Colorado for this, flying out on July 1.

Post-10K

Well, this morning's 10K went considerably better than I had expected. I was hoping (but not quite expecting) to make a time goal of 1:05 ... but I actually finished in 1:02:27. It was a lovely morning for a run ... brightly sunny, and at the 8 AM hour of the race, a pleasant temperature in the low sixties. And I was very glad to have been psychologically ready for the final tough mile ... uphill, on Maple Road, and the race director, in email to me, nicknamed it the Maple Monster. Leading up to it, I was thinking of it as the "hill of Hell" ... but, being so ready for it, I found it to be not quite as daunting as I had expected. I even passed some people on it (doubtless unwary souls who were not expecting it). Now, the next 10K I run (perhaps in the fall?), I'll hope to break an hour.

10K

This morning, I am moving up from 5K races, of which I've done about 6 in the past couple of years, to a 10K - the Dexter/Ann Arbor Run. I last did a 10K before my accident, when I ran the Cereal City Classic (Battle Creek) in roughly 47 minutes. I was a much younger man then, though, and had hoped for a while last year that I might challenge an hour in this run. But then I encountered the big setback of tearing a hamstring, and so I've reset my goal at 1:05 - I still may not make it, but I'll give it my best shot anyway. The most unnerving aspect is that the last mile of the course ascends a HUGE hill, from the Huron River up Maple Road. The race director gives this the apt name the "Maple Monster."