Nutri-Hut Run in the Sun 5k

What a crazy morning it was! First as I may have mentioned I have been struggling with allergies/ sinus issues for the entire last week. The inability to breathe through my nose has limited my training and essentially just had me not feeling all that well. I had held the internal debate about whether I wanted to compete in the mornings race at all. I finally decided to give it a go. I was up and prepared to go until...

We had a bit of a freak accident and my beautiful wife wound up falling out of her chair onto our ceramic tile floor leading to what we believe is a mild concussion. There was no way I could leave her alone...

I guess the race was off... but after much encouragement from my concussed yet still beautiful wife and the kindness of my mother-in-law I finally left the house 30 minutes before the opening gun. As Murphy's Law would dictate I got stuck behind the longest train I have ever seen and then caught every red light between my house and Nutri-Hut. I finally squealed into the parking lot with two wheels off the ground at 8:48.. the race started at 9:00am (glad it was close to home).

My warm up consisted of my sprinting to the registration table to get my bib, shirt and registration packet and then racing to the starting line.

On a side note my bib number for this race was 316 which happened to remind me of the guitar solo Eddie Van Halen wrote for his son Wolfgang before he was born... thought I would share it... a little music as you read?

Fortunately I was now lined up and ready to go with at least 3 minutes to spare...

The race itself went very well. it was a little warm, but not overly humid so weather was really not a factor. The course was open but thanks to a great job by the race organizers and the D'Iberville Police Department everything was more than safe. It was a challenging out and back course with some very good inclines. This was not the most scenic course I have ran but it was not unpleasant either. The course was well marked and well designed with adequate water stations and a clearly marked turn around. If the turn around wasn't clear enough there was a nearly 6 ft tall banana offering encouragement and making sure you knew where to go. I of course had to take the opportunity as I passed the giant banana to announce "This race is bananas YO!" a little homage to my boy Shaun T and Insanity.

 The crowd was certainly not as large as the Azalea Trail run or some of the other runs I have participated in, but for a first time event there was an excellent crowd. The official results show there were 87 racers... not too bad.

Your Humble Author receiving his first ever gold medal!

Those same official results show that the author of this blog finished the race at 26:25 that was good for 26th place overall and I am proud to say 1st place in my age group (35-39). I felt good while running, but I still feel I have room for improvement. I hope to get below 25:00 in my next race... more on that later.

I wanted to take a few minutes to offer some kudos to a few people. First of all I wanted to congratulate Amy Longmire and all the great people at Nutri-Hut for putting on a great event. Amy runs a great shop that offers a lot of amazing healthy diet and nutrition solutions.  Not to mention the "nutritious" smoothies are absolutely yummy! Amy's hard work really showed on Saturday as a great time was had by all.

I know Amy got a lot of help from another local business that deserves a major shout out. Run-N-Tri Company was an integral part of the event and did a wonderful job. This is my 1st experience with an event this company helped facilitate and I must say I am very impressed. This is a local running specialty store that also offers free gait analysis, a service I can't wait to take advantage of.

Another thing I think Run-N Tri deserves serious props for is their Couch to 5k Support program. Through this program Run-N Tri and it's wonderful staff are helping people take control of their lives. They are helping some wonderful women and men not only get healthy physically but also gain confidence and self esteem. The wonderful feeling these new runners had to feel as they heard the cheers and crossed the finish line completing eight very tough weeks had to be exhilarating.  Thanks Lisa and everyone at Run-N-Tri for helping to change people's lives forever. I want to have an interview with more information about this company and this program very soon.

By the way no one from either of the above companies have compensated me in any way for the positive feedback I have offered (they are welcome to... but they have not). As always I just want to be honest with anyone who may be reading.

The next race I plan to run will be June 11 in Pascagoula... More info later..

As always thank you to anyone who may be following along. I have decided to resume weekly updates now that we have settled in, however I will now be posting them each Monday.