With the fury of the trail and ultra (all of one 50 miler) seasons behind me, it seems I continue to neglect this blog just a smidge.

Since my last post, I have been much more active racing, alleviating some of the worry I had relative to my conditioning. I’m feeling much better about where I am at physically and as such, mentally.

To follow-up on the possible 10 miler in my previous post, I did wind up traveling to York for its premier 10 Miler. In an effort to avoid, a long drive in the morning, I opted to drive out the night before and stay the night. It was the first time since 2001 that I spent the night in York. (In 2008, Peg and I got stuck in York when our car brokedown. But then we were not in downtown York.) Great weather really made it a nice outing and even better race. Despite some bus shenanigans (it is a point to point) and a delayed race start (which did help me), the race went super smooth. I was out front solo from the get go cranking out rather steady miles on the converted rail line. Even managed to drop my 2^nd fastest split in the last mile! In the process, I set a new PR in 55:31. Considering, it was only my second 10 mile race and on a cinder-like trail surface, I might be able to whack off some more time on a road course. At the end of the day, I had a huge boost in my confidence.

In the weeks since the race, I have done two more 5K’s, each with increasingly faster times. (They were not any races that were too special in terms of prestige. Yet, I will note that the HCA 5K win was the 1^st time I have won the same race 4 times in a row. Which I believe, may match the number of times I have won Milltown’s July 4^th 5K.) And I have been feeling real solid in my workouts. (So confident that on the 8^th, I ran 20 miles home from a BBQ/Bowling outing at 10pm. It worked out nice because I slept in on Sunday knowing my 20 miler was done.) Now the tough part is going to begin. The taper. I am ready for it but feel so guilty not running my normal mileage. However, with Steamtown, just a little less than three weeks away, no need to be stupid. I am ready for that race. (Especially, now that I finally booked my room. I waited a bit late but got a nice place not too far for race morning that did not require two nights.)