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Today was going to be the first time I attended an organized race without my wife/sidekick. Naturally, in addition to not having her encouragement and support, I also had to carry all of my stuff. This meant limiting what I took to whatever I could carry. So I ended up using a fanny pack to take a few things such as my wallet (keys took up one pocket and phone took up the other), lip balm, extra batteries (for the camera I carried in my right hand), sunglasses and Clif bar.

I ended up wearing the sunglasses while driving instead of switching pairs (I have one for driving that is kept in my van, one for running and another for driving that I keep in my wife’s car, and they’re all different). I had intended on using the camera to do another RunCastTV video, but ended up forgetting most of the run as it was a tougher run than I expected.

I got there at 9:35am and Nafeisa (my co-worker) and her 17-year-old son, Moody, were getting out of their car. Turns out that they had arrived at 8:30, registered and just went driving around the area to kill time. We chatted for a while after I picked up my number. There were fewer in attendance at this run than were at the New Year’s 5-mile run.

Finally, the race was under way. Almost immediately, Moody pulled away from me as I ran ahead of Nafeisa who was only going to walk anyway. I should have asked more about his experience with runs as it turned out this was his first 5K ever. He had never run that far before. Naturally, as most runners know, you start off too fast or a faster pace than you can usually maintain, and you “blow out”, run out of energy too quickly. I passed Moody just after the 1-mile mark. I saw him one other time on a section of the course which was a switchback.

Overall, the run was harder I think because it had been almost a week since my last run. I also think I had eaten breakfast too early. I was disappointed at one group of three boys (about 10-years-old) who, upon seeing that it was a switchback and runners were coming back the other way, just decided to cut out the switchback altogether. I recognized one of the boys later as getting a 1st place medal when I knew he had not earned it.

I crossed the finish line at an almost even 33 minutes. This, I later discovered when I logged it, was a personal record (PR) for my 5K time. Several minutes later, Moody comes flying to the finish line. He figured he had a strong start so he would have a strong finish and ran at top speed when he saw the 3 mile marker indicating only 0.1 miles left to go. I had waited until he arrived to go get some water as I had expected him to be almost right behind me and I wanted to get his photo as he reached the finish.

We got a couple bottles of water and then stood around waiting for his mother. She finally arrived at just under 51 minutes, which was a decent time for walking. I had commented to her that she looked like Princess Leia with her huge headphones on. We helped her get some water (they were out of bottles by this time) and got some photos of us together before they left for lunch.

I had decided to stick around for the awards ceremony though I had little hope of winning. After the drawings (of which I won none, neither were Moody’s or Nafeisa’s number called), we settled in to the awards. For Moody’s age, the 3rd place winner was 8th place overall; so he’ll have to post a better time if he wants to place in his age group.

Of course, I was surprised when he called out my name for 3rd place in the 35-39 age group. I was the only one in the group that had hung around for awards. I was wishing (later this evening) that I had had someone take my picture with the medal around my neck using my camera. Ah well.

At this point I left, and felt like a chump about 10 minutes later. The point of me staying was to cheer for the winners who were receiving awards regardless of whether I got one or not. I had not stuck around for the age groups after myself or for the female winners (heck, who knows if Nafeisa may have won an award). Next time, if I stay for the awards, it will be for the whole ceremony.

Amy and I celebrated my accomplishment with dinner at Johnny Carino’s. The Italian Pot Roast is particularly splendid. We had chosen the three-course meal for two for $23.99. This meant a salad each, unlimited bread, two entrees and two individual sized desserts. The desserts were so worth it and were the perfect size.

Now I’m pretty close to calling it a night. Just a few more chores to do and then to head off to bed.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 10:13 pm and is filed under Health/Exercise, Running, Time-Warner, WebCudgel. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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