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.

On Sep 25th, 2010, a few of us from Equifax ran in the 5th Roswell Rise and Run 5K race. This race was to raise money for North Fulton Community Charities. Half the route was on gravel and thru the park. Speedy Gonzalez Matt Semrad came. So did Anastassia, Shannon and Megan. I posted 26:28. Matt pushed his 6 year old 60-pound son Carter in the stroller. And he still beat me by over two and a half minutes!!

Update on 10/1/2010: I got a call that I came in second in my gender/age group!!

Surprise! Surprise!! I found out the next day that I stood second in my age group! This has never happened to me before. PRobably will not happen again either. I have never been exactly the athletic types ever in my life!!

On Sep 11th, 2010, I did something I had never done – ran two back to back races – 5K and 10K. Matt got me hooked on this. Matt, unfortunately had to walk in the last quarter mile of the 5K race after sna[[ing his hamstring. Anastassia came out to run. Kumar and Joyce came to cheer us up!! I kept up with a steady 9 minute pace for both the races finishing at 28 minutes for the 5K and 56 minutes for the 10K,