On Oct 16, 2010, I ran the 2nd Milton Mayor’s 5K challenge. This is in the horse country town that we live in. The money we raised went to help out a kid’s favorite place – the Birmingham Park. I posted one of my career best runs – 23:38. It was a cool (42 degrees) morning and relatively flatter route. Plus there were a lot of my friends who came out to run.

Speedy Gonzalez Matt led the way with a little over 19 minutes. Chris, Eddy and I came close to each other. The great stories were from the three ladies of the group – Melanie who did a first time sub-40, Traci who ran after 6 months ran her PR in the high 30-s and a great run from Anastassia. This is the third consecutive race I have run with her. She shaved off 1 minute in the previous race and 3 more minutes in this one!!

The best part was the Starbucks and the chatting after that!!!

There is one of those life’s little anecdotes that came true today. 5 years back, I used to come to Milton since we had a customer here – Exide Technologies. When I went out for the runs in the morning from the Courtyard on Deerfield Parkway, I loved the rural beauty of Milton – the trees, dirt roads, horses… I remember how I wished I had lived here with the family. As it turns out, 3 years back, I got a job in Atlanta. I had no difficulty in choosing where to live. We looked at houses in Milton only. Today was the same Milton city’s run. Now, look at the backside of the T-shirt. This was (partly) sponsored by the same Exide Technologies!! Seems like life has come one full turn…

P.S. Oct 23: The results are out!! Anastassia and Matt came first their category. Matt was sixth overall. Melanie came third in her group. The rest of us came fourth or fifth in our groups. I was overall 22nd with fourth in my group. The total numbers of runners were a few below 100.