October 29, Saturday

On another stunning Saturday morning I ran a 5K at Tatum Park, number five in the autumn series of six.  I had two goals for today. The first was to use this Saturday race as a hill workout. I vowed to attack every Hill on the very mountainous Tatum Park course. Throughout the race I did manage to do that and my legs held up very well. My finishing time was 31:13.  I was surprised and a bit disappointed when I read that time. I was thinking to myself that I’m getting slower every week and not liking it very much. Now, I did get a covid-19 booster shot on Monday which made me quite fatigued on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I did not do any form of workout until Thursday at the clubhouse.  I went through about one hour in motion on the bike, the elliptical machine and the treadmill all in very moderate effort. On Friday I walked a great deal but that is all. A week like that usually makes my legs light and leads to a positive performance on Saturday. That is why my 31 minute time was so disappointing. But when I looked back at my times at Tatum Park in previous years I realized that I ran a pretty okay time. In 2020 I ran 30:36 and in 2021 I ran 32:27.  So, today’s time was over a minute faster than last year and only 30 seconds off two years ago. Not so bad after all!  One to go!

The second goal of the day was to hustle over to Monroe  Township and watch the sectional races at Thomson Park. I had a keen interest in a number of the races , and everybody that I was rooting for had to successful day .

My grand-nephew, Ryan, competing for Howell Township had a personal best at Thompson Park in the final cross country race of his career.

I was excited to watch boys from Liberty High School, a team I coached  with over the last 5 years, finish 4th in the Group III Central Jersey Championship. That is the best performance by a Liberty team in history. I could not be happier for coaches Todd and Jim  for the great performance they got from the boys this year.

And finally, coach Rich Refi’s Hillsborough girls ran a terrific race to finish second  in the Group IV Central Jersey Sectional Championship to continue their outstanding season.

Plus along the way I was able to spend some quality time with a few of my friends from the cross country world that had not seen in quite a while.

Truly, it was a delightful way to spend an October Saturday.  🙂   🙂

Stats- Everything is as it should be.