WebCudgel.com

I set my alarm last night for 6:45am. I planned on hitting snooze until 7am and then get the day going (which I did and seemed to work well). I had a breakfast of 3 small “cow-in-a-blanket” biscuits, a banana, and a bowl of wheaties with whole milk (oh, man, I forget how good cereal tastes with whole milk). By 8:30am, we are leaving the house on our way to the run location.

It just so happens this location is the furthest we’ve driven (35 miles) for me to attend a race. We got there at 9:15am and went down to the starting area. It was kinda confusing because they had no real signs up explaining the process, the speaker system they were using really sucked, and the start area was not clearly marked out (I ended up figuring it out when it’s 5 minutes til start and I could see where everyone was lining up).

We searched for a co-worker of mine, Carolyn, and her boyfriend, Bob, but never found them before the race. It was still pretty cold being just above freezing with a stiff breeze blowing. They had dozens of last minute registrants, but the total number of runners to complete the race was 394.

My wife was serving as a storage locker carrying my bag with my jacket, wallet, keys, a few things I couldn’t decide until race time whether I wanted or not, the camera with extra batteries, and a post-race snack (I found Pumpkin Pie Kashi bars at Target). She would also serve a more important role as personal photographer.

We all lined up for the race and again the speaker system sucked as you couldn’t understand a word from the announcer until he declared “Go!”. I had stayed towards the back of the pack knowing that my average per mile time was much slower than about 90% of the people there. Amy tried to get some pics of me during the start, but only succeeded in a few side shots between a bunch of other runners.

Five miles really seems like it’s much further when you’re running against other people. The only other times I’ve run five miles, I could take my time and not rush it. This was different and much more interesting than the Turkey Trot which was organized chaos with tens of thousands of runners. I may have pushed myself too hard at the first as I tend to run faster wanting to actually pass people during the race. My first mile was 10:29, which is much faster than my personal best run time.

At the 2.25 mile mark, they had a water station setup (which was just before the turn-around at 2.5 miles so it also served as the water station at the 2.75 mile mark). I decided to get a cup of water on the way back from the half way point. As is my standard procedure, at the halfway mark, I pull out my phone and call Amy’s phone and let it ring a few times and hang up. This is my way of signalling to her how fast I’ve completed half the course and when to expect me at the finish line.

Just before getting the water, I had to stop at a bench and tie a shoelace. I almost lost my balance as I went from running immediately to crouched over with my foot on the seat of the bench. I managed to tie the laces even with my gloves on and then got back in the race.

Just after the 3-mile mark, they had a marker for the 5K distance. At this point, I crossed at 34:02, which was right at 11 minute mile pace (meaning I knew I was slowing down and I still had almost two miles to go). I decided my first walking break (other than the shoelace incident and the water break) would be at the four mile marker.

I slowed down for about 1 minute and then returned to running. I figured I would take another break at the 4.5 mile mark, but by the time we reached that, they had removed the indicators showing where it was. Thus, I wasn’t sure if it was further down or what so I never actually took another walking break.

Just as I’m getting to the last two turns before the finish line, I see Carolyn and Bob walking toward the finish line (they had finished MUCH earlier than me) and they cheered me on. I then saw Amy ready to take a few more pics as I approached and then I finally crossed the finish line at 56:20. This was an overall pace of 11:16 per mile, which is not my best, but for a five-mile run, it was over three minutes faster than my best time for the same distance.

I got some water, then Powerade and Amy, Carolyn and Bob joined me around the “finish area”. We had a good time talking together waiting for the awards ceremony.

You see, I figured I had a chance this time of actually winning something. Every organized race has age categories by sex, but this one added in a few categories where you can choose to run in your weight-class rather than your age. The naming is unfortunate (but seems to be what all races use if they provide the weight-class categories) as there are three male groups: Clydesdale (200-214 pound), Rhino (215-239) and Hippo (240+). There is also one female group: Clydesdale (150+). They give out up to 3 medals for each of the weight-classes except for the male Clydesdale which gets 5 medals.

So why did I feel I had a chance? Well, I looked up last year’s results and the first place winner did it in 43 minutes. However, the second place was 1 hour and 8 minutes. I knew even my slowest time for the 5 mile was 1 hour and 5 minutes and my running had gotten faster over the last few months. I also figured that the one who had done it in 43 minutes last year may have lost weight and no longer be in the Hippo category (as it turns out, he didn’t run this year).

So when the called out the awards, the first one among us three to get a prize was Carolyn, who managed to the Female Masters Overall category (she was the fastest woman over 40 other than the overall Female). She received a nice plaque.

Then they started calling out the weight-divisions. I was disappointed when my name wasn’t called during the Rhino category announcements. Then I felt stupid when he said “and now for the Hippo division”. It turned out only three had actually pre-registered for the Hippo category. I found out much later when they posted the results online that only three registered period for the Hippo category.

Yeah, that means I actually received a medal. I came in second place in the category. The guy who came in first was 16 years older than me and actually about 6 inches taller than me (and all legs). If you look in the photo album linked below, the picture where I’m by myself wearing the medal, the guy right behind me in black is the first place winner I’m talking about.

That left Bob. Since he had not placed in the overall or masters overall, nor had he run in the weight-divisions, we had to wait for the age categories to be called… and there were a lot of categories. However, in the end, he placed first in the 45-49 male category. Thus, all three of us walked away having won a “trophy” from today’s race.

Amy and I celebrated my win with lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. We did some shopping at The Container Store, I did some shopping at K&G Superstore (menswear) and then we finished off the day out with a stop at Starbuck’s.

I have been rather tired most of the day and enjoyed vegging out once we got home. I finally saw The Green Mile for the first time and loved the film, an excellent story that was just out of left field for Stephen King. Now I will leave you with a link to the photo album online and call it a night… Amy and I still have to work tomorrow.

New Year's Day 5 Mile Run

(Cross-posted at Fatbloggers.net)

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 11:46 pm and is filed under 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.

Bookmark this post: