THE Pumpkin Run Results

Well, it is done. Today was the Pipestem Pumpkin Run, it was a beautiful day for running. Just cool enough for the weather to not play a factor in slowing me down and warm enough to allow shorts and a tech shirt.
I heard that the pre-registrations for both the 5k run / walk and 10k were down this year, but it looked like about the normal number of people were there, maybe 75, I will find out when they send me the results letter.
My friend MP and his Dad were there. MP ran the Marine Corps Marathon last week so he was just running this 5k to support his Dad. I didn't try to keep up with them, I just did my best to try and not lose them completely. That worked for most of the race.
The race started with me having a goal of completing the race in 40 minutes or less. If you recall on the test run that I did out here a few weeks ago I finished in 47 minutes. I hoped that all the work I had done since then and some comptetion to run against would help me meet that goal.
Since I haven't worked on pacing, just worried about finishing, I was probably a little fast at the beginning, but settled down pretty quick. I followed my plan to run to the bottom of the first hill and walk up the next. I ran across the top and down the next hill and then started walking as quickly as I could until I felt better to run some more again.
There were a couple of goals that developed as I ran/walked. The first was that I make it to the turn around before the 10k runners caught up with me. Made it! The second was that I make it to the water station before they caught me. Did that too! They weren't far behind though.
I had always planned to run most of the last leg. That worked out too... I rounded the corner with 4 minutes to finish the last 3/10ths or so. I jogged to one of the course marker pumpkins, walked for about 20 seconds and then asked myself why - and started jogging again, then the last 1/10th pumpkin came up and I started Running. I could see the clock said 39 minutes and I really pushed myself to the finish line.
39 minutes and 26 seconds (unofficially)
That was good for first place in my age group. There were two of us, but I beat her!
So I said I would post a picture, I really should stay out of the sun for pictures.
I still have a lot of weight to lose - another 50 pounds gone would make me unrecognizable - but I am getting there. The comparison picture is in the August 2007 file.

Thanks for all the support, next stop is ... not definate yet, but there are several options available.
I will be adding another mile to my training route. I plan on doing that every month. October was 3 miles, November is 4 miles and so on. Along with that - all of the miles need to be completed within 1 hour. Until that becomes unreasonable anyway.
What that means is I will have to start working on pace and speed. The dogs will like that part.