I signed up for these races over the summer when it was announced the Hartford Marathon was going virtual. Along with offering a virtual marathon, the marathon foundation would have a half marathon, 10K, and 5K. Well, there’s no way I’m running a half or full marathon, so I leaned more toward the 10K and 5K. You could sign up for just one of the four races or you could sign up for a challenge: run all four races; run the half, 10K, and 5K; or run the 10K and 5K. I opted for the last one, which is called the Tenacious 2. I received a short sleeve race t-shirt and a medal; I’ll also get another medal in the mail for completing the Tenacious 2. The virtual race began last Thursday and ended yesterday.

5K

I ran the 5K on Thursday after work. It was in the low 60s and breezy and the sun was about to set in less than an hour. I wore a t-shirt and shorts, and it might have been a bit chilly for shorts but I went with it. Similar to the virtual 5K I ran last month, I told myself anything under 35 minutes would be good.

The first 1.5 miles felt good, and normally this is when I stop to walk but I kept going. When I hit 2 miles, I still kept going. Once I hit 2.5 miles, I started to feel a bit slow but pushed through it. At 3 miles, I ran as fast as I could to get to 3.1. I ran the entire 3.1 miles without stopping! In 32:01! I was really happy and proud of myself considering I’m not running like I used to earlier this year.

I also saw 3 dogs. Not as many as I normally see but at least I saw some dogs.

10K

I ran the 10K Saturday morning, and my goal going into it was to just finish, no matter what happened. I hadn’t run anywhere close to 6 miles since July, so I knew it was going to be a bit rough. And it was.

I was able to run the first mile but after that I was stopping to walk after ever half mile or so. When I got to 4 miles, I stopped for a few minutes just to breathe and part of me just wanted to be home already. I told myself I had 2.2 miles left, which didn’t seem like too much, but it seemed to take me forever to get home.

My final time was 1:13:31, which I’ll take. I normally run 10Ks closer to 1:10, but that was when I was running longer distances more often. The only good thing about the run was that the weather was really nice, breezy and sunny.

My animal count for the run was 9 dogs and 1 cat. I also saw some other runners/walkers, and I think it’s nice when we wave to each other.

So this is my final virtual race of the year. I have no clue what’s going to happen with races next year. I’ll still keep up with running at least twice a week but I really don’t have anything to plan or train for, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.