This medal, as I wrote on Instagram, is the first I’ve ever gotten for a 5k. It’s also a better medal than some I’ve gotten for half marathons or marathons.

Finally we have a 2025 run to write about.

And at least, when it comes to the first run of the new year, this one was worth the wait.

I told you when I started the 5k training program that this one was going to be more of a test balloon, setting a bar that hopefully I’ll surpass with each successive run.

Unfortunately, I set that bar pretty high.

This was a very Irish St. Patrick’s Day Weekend run - the Ras na hEireann U.S.A. 5k in Somerville. (That translates to “Race of Ireland” for those of you, like me, who wondered.)

I debated driving into town for bib pickup Friday or Saturday but thought that was kind of silly when I had to make the drive again on Sunday, so I just went in nice and early on Sunday to get my bib then.

I didn’t have the normal level of “where will I park?” anxiety for two reasons - as unfamiliar as I am with Somerville, this is one area I know pretty well from my comedy-performing days, and also because it was a Sunday morning and I knew there weren’t permit parking rules on Sunday. So I was pretty confident I’d find a spot, and I did.

I actually moved my car even closer after I got my bib and threw the t-shirt they gave in the car.

I killed some of the hour before the race by walking around and seeing what had changed and what was still there in a neighborhood where I used to spend a lot of time but hadn’t been in five-plus years.

While I was doing that I ran into people from the running club, and I spent the rest of the morning with them. We did a warm-up run, which is not something I usually do before a race. It certainly didn’t hurt - it might have even helped my performance.

After that loosened me up I stretched until the start and had a quick bite - a Honey Stinger oat and honey bar, my pre-race go-to.

Then we were off. In the 5k Peloton program the routine so far is a walk/run, a tempo run, an endurance run, and then a recovery walk.

This run timed out with the tempo run for week 2, so I just treated the run as that - I went hard for 4 minutes and then a joggish run for 2 minutes a few times over.

That kind of got me through two and a half miles, and then all of a sudden there was the finish line.

The total length of the race was actually 3.07 miles, if we’re being specific.

Official time was 26:36.

There were a lot of uphills…which also meant a lot of downhills. I think I played it pretty strategically and took advantage of the downhills to speed me up.

I think my all-time best 5k was something like 24 minutes, which I ran the weekend after my first Boston Marathon and I knew the marathon did not reflect the shape I was in…so I ran the 5k fast because 3 miles was nothing to me at that point.

I don’t know if I’ll reach that level of fitness by the B.A.A. 5k in April.

But Sunday’s run certainly got the 2025 running season off on the right foot….so I’ll choose to believe that maybe I can.