NEW MATT STRINGER.COM

So it's been quiet here at The Stringdom. With summer vacations and preparations for the arrival of the baby in November, I've missed the past couple of 5k's at the DSE. But one of the things I have been up to is redesigning my illustration website. It's now got a whole new look, as well as a few new illustrations and poems. So click here to check it out. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

WALT STACK 5K

4th race of the season was last weekend and it netted a new personal best. Coming oh-so-close to my goal of breaking 20 minutes, I finished at 20:04, which was a 5 second improvement on my previous best time of 20:09 a few years back, and a 42 second improvement over the last race a few weeks back. Other than the Easter Roller Coast race I've seen a steady improvement in my times each time out, which is encouraging. In this last race, out of 95 runners I finished 10th overall and 4th in my age group (30-39). Next race is 5/27.

EMBARCADERO 5K

Last weekend was my 3rd 5k race of the season. This one was back down at the Embarcadero and a similar course to the Waterfront 5k that I ran back in March. After the very slow time I ran 2 weeks ago, due to the hilly course in the Presidio, I rebounded nicely with my fastest time of the year so far, breaking 21 minutes. My time, 20:46, was actually my 2nd fastest 5k ever, only bettered by the 20:09 I ran a few years back. Out of 111 runners I finished 20th overall and 5th in my age group (30-39). Next race is 5/6.

EASTER ROLLER COASTER 5K

So my second 5k race of the season was last weekend. As the name of the race implies, the course was really hilly, and like riding on a roller coaster, I sort of felt like puking at the end. The course started at the west end of Mountain Lake Park before moving along the south edge of the Presidio golf course, up to the Presidio gate on Pacific Avenue before turning around and returning the same way. The first 50 or so yards that I could see from the starting line looked easy enough but I knew I was in for it when the race director described at the start, "We go up a hill and then down and then up another hill and then turn around and return. It's really tough." That was an understatement. The series of 4 hills kicked my butt. Below are the official results. Out of 111 runners I finished 35th overall and 9th in my age group (30-39). My time was actually about 3 minutes slower than my first race back in the beginning of March. So that wasn't entirely encouraging but I chalk that up more to the course than my conditioning. Or at least I hope. We'll find out at the next race which looks like will be on 4/22.

WATERFRONT 5K

So I won't announce this with as much fan fare as the miracle mile attempt which I fell flat on my face with last year, but I've decided to get back on the horse and dust off the running sneaks. Though, this time instead of targeting a 4:59 mile, because there doesn't seem to be any mile races in spring or summer, I'm hopping on board the 5k circuit. 5k, or 3.1 miles, is the next distance up from the mile and they are much more plentiful in terms of the number of races.

To prove, to myself, that I'm more serious about sticking with the running this time I decided to join a running club called Dolphins South End Runners. They are one of the better-established running clubs in SF, having been around for 40 years. They have races almost every weekend, not all 5k's necessarily, but are fairly low key stressing personal bests and the social element of having fun + running. And since their motto is "Start slow and taper off" which pretty much described my attempt last year to resurrect the running regime I figured it was a good fit.

So yesterday, after only really training 2 weeks, I ran my first 5k down on the Embarcadero. Out of 110 runners I finished 16th overall and 4th in my age group (30-39). Ironically enough my time, 21:13, was actually the identical time to the last 5k race I ran back in 2003 during the original running regime. So not a bad first effort, though well off the winning pace. Here are the complete results:



When I was actually running consistently a few years back, which I detailed in the previous Miracle Mile post, my best 5k time was 20:09. So I'm hoping over time as I get in shape to try to better that mark. Next race I'm tentatively targeting is on 4/8. More updates to follow.