Tiger Trot Update and other stuff

WOW, what a crazy week!  Between work, working out, church, and now school, my days are full!  I'm still crazy busy at work.  With all the online testing going on school, my work days have been very busy.  As the technology coordinator, online testing takes up a lot of my time.  I also started a technology class at Pensacola State College.  I was offered training in 3 tech classes for free through a grant.  They are "Security +", "Network +", and "A+".  To top that off, they called me last week and asked if I wanted to take a 3 day cert class on VMware.  Yep, it's free too!  So I said sure.  And of course, I still go to the gym everyday.  We can't forget Wednesday church either.  Oh and I asked my church if I could start a running club and I was given the go ahead last Wednesday.  Can't wait to see who signs up!  That will take up my time Tuesday evenings!

Ok, enough about why I haven't been posting.  Now on to this past Saturday's race, the Tiger Trot to benefit the Ronald McDonald House of Pensacola.  This is my 3rd time running this race.  It offers a 10K and a 5K.  Last year and this year, I signed up for the 10K.  It was my first 10K of this season.  The weather was great.  A bit breezy, but cool too!  What runner doesn't like the cooler temps right?  The crowd wasn't as big as last year, but I think they had about 4 other races going on in the local area.  All in all, still a decent group.  This race is put on by the GE Volunteers.  As in years past, they did a great job.  The route was well marked and there were plenty of volunteers at the turns.  The route is fairly flat for the most part.  There's one hill at about 5.25 miles.  Just enough to force you to dig down deep to finish strong.  I pushed myself a bit too much for this being my first 10K of the season.  I keep a 8-minute pace for the first 5 miles. But that last 1.2 miles was tough.  I ended up stopping twice before the finish.  Not for long, but just long enough to get my legs back under me.  I pushed up that dang hill and then had just under a half mile to finish.  There was this lady that I had been running with for just about the whole race with me and she's like, "come on, you can do it!".  I tried, but I had to stop one more time.  Then I gathered my strength and pushed my way to the finish.  I crossed the line at 51:48.  Just about a minute and a half slower then last year.  Considering I stopped twice, I was completely satisfied with that time.

Emily and I after receiving our awards!  All smiles!

I got to meet 2 more of my Dailymile friends.  I meet Emily and Jennifer.  Great ladies.  They both were running their first 10Ks.  So proud of them.  Both Emily and I placed in our age groups.  Emily got 3rd in her group and I was fortunate enough to get 2nd in mine.  This race does the 10 year age groups (which I hate by the way) and I finished behind Gary Lambert just like I did last year.  The medals were awesome this year.

Well my friends, til the next time!  And remember, "Real athletes run, all the rest just place games!"