Since my health insurance premiums are skyrocketing,....

....it would behoove me to stay in good physical condition. Thankfully I began running regularly the summer of 2013.

When spring hit about six months ago, I decided to run outdoors at least twice per week. I found a nice two mile route near my home, which seemed to suit me just fine. Once summer time came around, I felt if I could just stretch another 1.1 miles, that would put me in running shape for a 5K race.

Every year on the Saturday before Halloween, our neighboring town of Anoka (aka The Halloween Capitol of the World) hosts the Gray Ghost 5K run. I figured the only way to stay motivated to run that race would be to sign up in September ----- which I did. No turning back.

So on a beautiful fall afternoon this past Saturday, I (along with 1,599 other runners) took my place at the starting line.

My goal was to finish. And finish I did!

Of the 1,600 runners, my time of 31 minutes, 23 seconds was good for 567th overall. Of the 658 males, I finished 348th. And of the 127 men within my age group of 40-49, I finished 66th.

While I'm no Roger Bannister, I came away from this race thoroughly satisfied with what I had accomplished.

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