To start off the new year right, Bruce, Malcolm, and I ran in the Resolution Run 5K at Magnuson Park, an old naval air station here in Seattle on Lake Washington. It was reasonably warm for January in Seattle (high 40's) with no rain, but it was bit windy -- in our face for the outbound leg. The course was flat (a nice change), so there was really no excuse for a slow race (other than being fat, old, and slow with aching shins).

Bruce and I both ran personal bests today. I finally crashed through the 27 minute barrier, running 26:35 (actually 26:24 if you subtract the 11 seconds it took to get from where I started to the starting line.) I felt pretty good through the whole race, although my average pulse is still higher than I'd like (183 actual).

This was Malcolm's first run with us and his first 5K in a long time; he came in all humble thinking he'd run nine minute miles and wound up crushing me by 20-30 seconds. Sandbagger.

We skipped the optional "trip-n-dip" into Lake Washington at the end. The 47 degree water didn't sound very inviting. The beer and chili afterwards, however, was very nice. All-in-all, it was a great start to 2006.

I'm laying out my goals for 2006 now and will post them here shortly. I think they will include a sprint triathlon, the STP (Seattle-to-Portland bike race - 200 some odd miles over one or two days), and a bunch more running races. I may move up to 8K and 10K races; I'm not sure if I really want to push for a half-marathon. We'll see.

Click for a larger view of the route. Ignore the finishing time. Not sure why it's so much shorter. Cool image generated by SportTracks.