May 27, 2013 marked the 26th running of the Loudoun Street Mile in Winchester, Virginia. I ran this race last year and it was the only race I thought I was going to puke after. Nice, right?

It’s only a mile, but going all out for that mile must have been a shock to my system. This year I was ready, though. I figured I had better not toss my cookies on the newly rejuvenated walking mall.

The race is organized so the whole family can participate. Last year both Connor and I ran. This year Jen and Cole joined us I for their first race. I dropped Connor and Jen off at the start line then drove down to the finish line area to drop my mom and Cole off. I used the mile back to the start as a warm up jog.

I made it up there just as they were getting ready to start the women’s mile. Connor and I watched as Jen took off for her run. The girls went off shortly afterward followed by Connor’s boys group. I then had a bit of time to warm up as the boys ran, followed by the men’s 6:00 and over mile.

My goal was a sub-5:00 mile. Last year I did it in 5:20.

Finally they lined us up in the under 6:00 runners. Last year I think I started out too fast. Well, guess what … I did it again. After a quarter of a mile I knew I was way off pace. I finally hit a comfortable stride at 3/4 mile in. At the final 200 meters I took off on a dead sprint and passed a few runners before crossing the finish line at 5:07.

No puke, either! Yay!

I missed my goal, but I was happy with the effort and proud of Jen and Connor for completing their races in 10:39 and 7:50 respectively.

The final race of the day was the Tot Trot for kids 5 and under. It is a 100 yard “dash” for the youngsters. Cole managed to keep at least one toddler in his dust as he blazed down the mall representing the one year olds.

At the end of the day, everyone had a great time and we look forward to doing it (puke-free) again next year. Thank you, Mark Stickley, for organizing this race.