The Quarantine Mile

One of the fun things for myself since the quarantine started has been running. I got a new pair shoes to test in Feb and without the daily commute to Santa Monica, I have had a lot of time to figure out when/where to run.  Early on, while the streets were empty, I tried to run with the girls (on their bikes) as much as their interest would hold. On the weekends, it has been fun w/ the local running community. The local high school marked a 1 mile course on the streets with blue tape and everyone has been using it. We have a Saturday morning group that has been running a hard mile almost every week. This past weekend we had a 61 year old who wanted to run sub 5:30 and myself (age 40) who wanted to break 5 min. We started 8 weeks ago and he was at 6:00 min and I was at 5:20. Yesterday we ran 5:29 and 4:55 respectively. There was a total of 5 people at the finish line (including the two of us) and we celebrated like we had just won the Olympics (elbow bumps and all)...Ironically, last year when I turned 40 I told my running buddy I wanted to break 5 min for a mile and I was nowhere close. This year with the quarantine (one year later and older), I did it by 5 seconds...Who knew all it took was a new pair of shoes and pandemic to get me in shape :-) 

Pic below was my first attempt 8 weeks ago...