Back in September, I signed up for the virtual Santa Monica Classic 5k. A week later, I received a nifty little box in the mail consisting of a runners buff, fuel samples, a T shirt and last but not least, a finishers medal.

Many things conspired against me actually “racing” this event, virtually or not: I wanted to train for it for a fast PR. I’m already running a great deal throughout the week, I don’t have the time to drive to the one place where I can be guaranteed a fast course, and even if I did, I have plenty of time before the December 31st deadline.

On Christmas Day, I realized that I had almost run out of excuses. And since I had no plans to travel anywhere to get infected with “The Cov,” there was nothing stopping me from earning that finishers medal except laziness.

At 2:00 PM, when foot and bike traffic on the Santa Monica bike path was as full as you would expect at mid afternoon on a major holiday, I took a deep breath, expelled it, and launched myself south down the bike path. Dodging walkers, cyclists, automobiles and even other runners, I made my way along at a semi uncomfortable 7:30/mile pace. Within a half mile, I knew that would be my pace, no matter how much I wanted it to be faster.

But this was a VDOT test, after all! I rationalized. This tells me where I’m at:

Average for each mile was: 7:30, 7:40, then 7:30 again. With a tenth of a mile to go (that pesky 0.1!) I pushed myself to the limit, averaging 6:45 for that little stretch.

So where am I? Exactly where I was this time last year, and 45 seconds slower (overall) than I was five years ago.

I’ve done a lot of things right, but if I want to do more than merely “hold place” as the years tick along, I’m going to have to train smarter.

That’s what the new year is for. How will this next revolution around the Sun go? Stick around and find out.