Hi All,
Short Version: Not enough sleep, good race, great encounter.
Long Version:
This is the third year that I've run the series and this year decided to again do the kilometer series. Part of the reason was that the idea of racing a 20 miler in a few month didn't appeal to me, but primarily was that my son Kevin was going to be running the 5k and I wanted to be able to watch him finish. There were also a number of NoWDeads that were going to be there running the 5k, and being as slow as I am, I would miss out on a lot of "encountering" if I ran the miles.
One of the downsides to the race is that it does come the morning after New Years Eve. On the 31st, we stayed home, played games with the kids and my parents and watched the new year roll through on the television. Of course a major part of the evening was eating. My mom brought over a huge pot of chili to add to the pie, cheese and crackers, bean dip, candy, homemade caramel corn etc... I started eating and drinking (not too much, just some wine, Irish cream, Egg Nog, Champaign) at 6:00pm and didn't quite until 1:00am. When I woke up the next morning my GI tract informed me, none to subtlety, that I should really consider a better pre-race diet. Between trips to the bathroom, I woke up my son Kevin and we got ready to go to the race.
The weather was cold, wet, and windy. During my warm-up laps around the track I was really wondering why I bothered to show up this morning. I felt lousy and my legs felt sluggish. The kilometer and mile runners start at the same time and I got Kevin lined up well near the back. I was hugging him trying to keep him warm so by the time I went to move up to where I thought I should start, it was too late. For the second year in the row, I started too far back in the pack.
The race starts on the track and then climbs up a short hill and onto the roads. I was struggling to get by some of the slower runners and wondering if I was going to be able to finish the race in time to make it to the bathroom again. I felt very slow and even though I had never formulated a plan for this race, I figured it was going to be a very slow one. I was surprised then when the first mile came by in 6:46, faster than I would have expected. Unfortunately, my energy level just kept dropping as the race went on. I hit the turn around and headed back thinking that this was going to be close to my 22:24 time of last year.
I caught and passed a few runners, but was more often passed by others. A couple of guys went by that I knew had to be in my AG, but I just couldn't stay with them. I hit the track again for the last 300 meters and tried to pick up the pace as best I could. I started to gain on one of the other old-timers ahead of me, but couldn't catch him and he finished two seconds ahead of me. I did remember to hit the watch as I finished and glanced quickly at it. It looked to me like 21:48. I figure not too bad. That is better than last years time, but way off my 5k PR of 21:25. I almost lost the rest of my New Year Eve dinner in the chute, but fortunately for all everything stayed in place.
I ran into the building and grabbed the camera so I could come out and get a picture or two of Kevin and the Deads as they finished. I got a few pictures then Kevin and I went into the building to get warm. As we were sitting around the table eating and drinking coffee (I decided not to eat any of the chili) I looked at my watch again. This time the watch said 21:18! I had read it wrong in the chute but I was being distracted by my stomach at the time. Turns out I had a terrible race, but still ended up with a 7 second PR.
Kevin also did well getting himself a PR of 26:18.
The encounter was great and I'm looking forward to the next one at the end of the month.