Martha Jefferson 8K

Another race under my belt, and a fairly decent time even -- This past Saturday I ran the Martha Jefferson 8K through downtown Charlottesville. My goal was to finish in the top half, which I managed to do. I was 209th out of 437, with a time of 44:14. That meant a pace of under nine minutes per mile over about five miles, which is a PR for me for that distance! Woohoo! Nothing stellar, but decent performance for someone who is probably not genetically tuned to be a serious runner. I was 20th of 33 for my age group, so a little on the slow side there, but still...

The weather was, um, icky. Chilly, gray, drizzling (except the brief downpour 20 minutes before the race started), and utterly uninspiring, except that it made you want to get it over with quicker. I blame the weather for my relative performance not being better, because I presume the less-serious runners probably stayed home; attendance was a little lighter than I expected. So it was just the die-hards, and the folks (like me) not smart enough to stay home in bed on a dreary, wet morning.

All in all, though, I'm pleased about the race. It felt good, I had a decent time, and I at least feel my running base is now pretty solid (given that I sort of forgot about the race and didn't train much in the couple weeks leading up to it).