Progress, almost 4 minutes down: 4/15/08

I ran the Georgia Tech Pi Mile this past Saturday morning. I finished the 5K in 27:45! I was shocked when I saw the clock at the finish line because I really felt that I wasn't doing a good job of keeping pace. I'm sure you can imagine how happy I was to see the official race time. Saturday's race was an interesting one for me. It's the first race that I have run by myself without my boot camp instructors. It was different to say the least. It just didn't feel right not having anyone from boot camp there with me. At least I was able to prove to myself that I can complete a race on my own and should never use the excuse of not having anyone to run a race with me.

The past couple of days at boot camp have been exciting. Yesterday, we had our midpoint test. I ran a 7:53 mile! That's 4 seconds faster than my previous time two weeks ago. I'm at the point where my mile time is only going to improve in small steps like this. I've got to continue to push myself and work hard in order to keep shrinking my mile time. It's going to be a while before I build up the endurance required to consistently run that fast of a mile.

We played war today at boot camp. Some folks might even call it capture the flag. Everyone was divided into 2 teams and had flags around their waists. We used the flag football type flags that are attached to a belt and can be easily pulled off. We chased each other around an enclosed area and tried to rip the flags off. When your flag was taken, you had to go to prison and do different excercises. Whichever team one got to celebrate by doing victory jumping jacks while the losing team did pushups or burpies. It was a very fun way to get a good cardio workout. You don't realize how much sprinting and running around you're doing until it's all over.

The Sprint for Cancer 10K is this Sunday. This will be my second 10K and I'm looking to beat my previous time of 57:25. Barrett and Sean are both running it as well. I think there are several other boot campers running the 5K. We're hoping to have another large presence of American Boot Camp Company campers at this race. If you make it out there, stop by our booth and join us in the fun. For information about the race check out http://www.sprintforcancer.com/.