Super Sunday Fun Run B-Race

As you know if you read 2026 Fitness Goals, I'm training for a Half Marathon in April, the "Platte River Half Marathon". 

I'm following Runna's Half Marathon plan, and one of the options in the Runna app is including "B-Races" as part of the plan. 

In case you're unfamiliar, a "B‑Race" is a race you do during training to help you prepare for your main race, which is called your "A‑Race". 

Fairly obvious if you think about it in context, but it was not a term I knew about until I started with Runna.

Coincidently, there was a 5k Race planned that starts and ends at the same spot as my "Platte River Half Marathon" that took place last Sunday.

Super Sunday Fun Run

So, I decided to throw it into the plan and ran it Sunday.

I've actually never run an organized "race" of any kind, so this was completely a new experience for me. 

Runna's AI "Coach" told me to "treat this as a hard training run to push towards your A-race. Working harder over a 5km will help you practice your pacing ahead of your A-race. Start off controlled and look to build progressive effort is the way to go."

It gave me a target of 10 - 10:35 minutes per mile pace.

Most races like this (at least the two that I've read up on) have "waves" of runners starting off. The faster runners go first, followed by the next fastest, and so forth. Last go the people who are mostly just walking.

I placed myself in the 10 to 11 minutes per mile wave, and I planned to maintain that 10 to 11 minute pace.

This is faster than my training runs have been, but wouldn't result in any kind of PR (Personal Record). 

Once I started, though, I guess my competitive spirit kept me going a touch faster in order to get ahead of the people around me, and by the time I had gone my first 3/4 of a mile, I had made the decision to push towards my 5km PR.

And, I was very successful at maintaining a fast-for-me pace. 

According to Strava, my first mile was 9:12. My second mile was 9:07. My third mile was 9:08. 

My official "Chip Time" was 28:06.1, which is a 9:04 pace. So, my official time was a little faster than my Garmin / Strava GPS time.

Either way, it is by far my best 5k run ever.

Actually, the Garmin originally had me only finishing 3.08 miles, which is .02 miles short of 5k, so at first I thought Strava wouldn't give me credit for the 5k PR, but the "Adjust Distance" button in Strava gave me an extra .03 miles, so now I have new PR's in

• half mile: 04:22 ... 8:44 / mile
• 1 km: 05:28 ... 08:48 / mile
• 1 mile: 08:49 ... 08:49 / mile
• 2 mile: 17:55 ... 08:57 / mile
• 5 km: 28:08 ... 9:03 / mile

So, I did better than planned ... by a lot.

And ... I've actually been fighting a bit of a cold for the past few days, which certainly didn't help my effort.

I think I did as well as I can realistically expect given my current running level.

Even so, I finished the race 111 out of 316, and only 7th out of 15 in my age group. Not great when I compare myself to "the field", but I guess it isn't about that right now. Still plenty of room to improve.

The "Platte River Half Marathon" is still a couple months away, but I'm feeling good about my training progress so far.

At this point, I don't have another B-Race scheduled, but I might try to get a 10k race in before the final A-Race. We'll have to see what I am able to find.

In the meantime, I need to get over this cold, and I now have a hamstring "niggle" I'm hoping doesn't get worse.

Youtube Video of my Finish

As always, stay tuned on the regular SheppyBrew Channels to see what is happening with beer, barbeque, biking and other things in my life: SheppyBrew's Facebook Page; Sheppy's Twitter Feed; SheppyBrew's Instagram Page; and SheppyBrew's Website.

2026 Fitness Goals

So ... as you know if you follow this blog, I'm actually pretty physically active for an old decrepit couch potato. 

Quite often, usually about once a month, I've posted updates on my on Strava cycling goals. The last time I reported on this was December Update on 2025 Cycling Goals.

Towards the end of last year, I started running, so in 2026 I decided to add a couple of running goals as well. 

I thought I'd share my 2026 "Fitness" Goals today ...

 

V is for Living the Dream Brewing Company

Last Saturday, I was viciously attacked by an animal. 

Not a dog. Not some wild animal. Not a hungry or threatened reptile. Not a stinging or biting insect. Not an aggressive rodent.

I was attacked by a HOUSE CAT!

In a freaking brewery!

Depending on the individual city / local ordinances, many of the Denver-area breweries advertise that they are "dog friendly" ... ie ... as long as your dog is well-behaved, you can bring your dog.

I've never seen a brewery communicate in any way that pet cats are welcome.

 But ... when we packed up a lunch, went on a short hike, and visited ...

V is for LiVing the Dream Brewing Company

 

"Dry January" Beers

I don't really believe in "Dry January" in the same way I don't really believe in New Year resolutions.

I don't understand why if you want to make a change on yourself you would wait until January. If you want to make a change, do it when you identify the change you want to make.

 

U is for LŪki Brewery

HA! Three A to Z Brewery Posts in a row!

If you follow this blog at all, you probably have a pretty good idea what this A to Z series is all about ... but just in case you're wondering ...

Back in February of 2015, I was embarrassed by the number of Denver Breweries that I had never visited.

I decided to make an effort to hit more of them.

As I started to look at the list, it struck me that I could go down the list alphabetically and find Denver-area breweries that started with just about every letter.

So, I did. And ... we've gone through 5 whole rounds. Now we're on our 6th time through the alphabet.

After T is for The Post Chicken & Beer (Rosedale), we are up to the letter "U".

U is for LŪki Brewery

T is for The Post Chicken & Beer (Rosedale)

We're still working through Round 6 of the A to Z Series of posts.

If you've been following the blog, you know we hit S is for Second Dawn Brewing Company just a couple of days ago.

And ... of course that means it was time to pick a "T" brewery.

According to the Colorado Brewery Map & List, we did have a couple of "T" breweries to pick from.

Honestly, though one of the breweries on the list is one I really don't like. And a few others I was considering were a little farther than I wanted to travel.

I ended up picking a restaurant close to our house that isn't technically a brewery ....

T is for The Post Chicken & Beer (Rosedale)

S is for Second Dawn Brewing Company

So ... yes ... we are chugging away on Round 6 of the A to Z Series of posts.

We had a long 6 month delay between N is for North River Brewery (RiNo) and O is for Odell Brewing 5 Points, but our more recent posts have come fairly fast.

This is our 4th A to Z posts in December and January, and we're up to "S".

According to the Colorado Brewery Map & List, we had a couple good choices for "S" breweries.

And ... a couple of Saturdays ago, based on the hours of operation, we packed a lunch and picked .... Big S. Little S. What begins with S?

S is for Second Dawn Brewing Company