For me, these days, that is the entire battle. Insofar as 5K races are considered at least. Usually, once I show up, I realize how age has thinned the competitive field and I stand a fair chance of getting some recognition.

Woke up late today – thanks to going to bed late last night. For a brief moment, I considered dropping out of the race. Here is where the hiked up entry fees help. Felt too guilty to not show up after spending so much money.

It was a watchless run again. I had no idea of time till I reached the end of the race and saw the clock. It was 30 min 9 seconds. The race results came in quickly. Got a second spot again in my age group. There were about 24 in my age group. Like I said, I need to just keep getting older and not stop running. Speed be darned.

Interestingly enough, exactly on this day, 11 years back, I ran exactly this same race and finished 6 minutes faster than today!

The race chip on my bib malfunctioned when I crossed the starting line. So, I got the default gun time of 0:00. Which implies I was the first guy to get off the line. In reality, I was back of the line and it took about 15-20 seconds to reach the starting point. The results would not have been much different though. The guy who beat me was a clear 3 minutes ahead of me.

I am not sure I can do that kind of sub-9 min pace ever again.