Yesterday, in a rare “out of office” event, a team from Craigie geared up to run a 5k. Carrie Cole organized everything for us including the fund-raising team. Thanks to some well placed e-mails, twitter updates, and phone calls, our team was able to raise $1500 for the MA Special Olympics. Thinking about raising almost 7 times that as a personal endeavor for Boston is a bit intimidating, but seeing that people ARE willing to give was nice.
Though this strategy is likely ass backwards, I decided to use my marathon taper techniques and modify them slightly for a 5k. Lots of sleep two nights before, lots of water the night before. Cereal and fruit for breakfast, no food and water one hour before the event. Quick five minutes warm up 15 minutes before the gun. The end. I did a few treadmill runs and speedwork outside over the last few weeks but frankly, I didn’t train for this race. I was anxious to see how everything would go.
When the announcer called all five and six-minute milers up to the starting line, I sheepishly huddled into the crowd. The Craigie team wished me good luck and I went to see what the other runners were like. Roughly 50 people decided to approach the line as 5 and 6 minute milers. Mostly men, some with full outfits and gear, others with old, well-loved shorts and shoes. The remaining 950 runners slowly filled in behind us. We all took the Athlete’s creed and the gun was fired.
In my standard racing approach, I was slow off the line. I don’t know if it’s because I hate sprinting, or that I love passing people–maybe it’s both. I felt a surge of people head past me with long strides and high chests and as I started my shuffle. My quick warmup took the jitters out of my legs and helped me to get into a good rhythm nice and quickly. At the one mile mark, I found myself in a divide between a lead pack of 25 and following pack of 50 or so; I ran it in 6:15. Not as quick as I might have wanted, but it felt amazing. For the next 1.5 miles, people slowly dropped from the lead pack and I made it my mission to catch anyone that fell off the pace. One by one, I slowly picked off the people and tried to reel in that original back. Coming back up Comm. Ave to the common, I passed the solo runner and set my eyes on a group of three about 30 second back from the lead. I shortened their lead but they hit their sprint stride before I could catch them and were gone.
I crossed the line in 19:25, which is a new PR. Oddly, though, I wasn’t necessarily excited about the time; I was excited about the race. It was well-paced, smartly run. Yes, only a 5k, but I finally felt like doing athletics for the last 20 years actually had some payoff. I now have five months to apply those lessons to 26.2 miles. Here I come.
Todays run:
6.2 miles ~ 50 minutes (no watch)
Weather: Getting golder…33 degrees and windy.
Mood: Distracted, thoughtful. Long week at work and three more days before a day off.
Clothing: Boston Marathon top, t-shirt, spyder top. Nike shorts, pegasus shoes.
I’m hoping that Santa will fill my stocking with lots of running goodies. Not only will it satisfy my obsession with running gear, but it will be nice to be a bit warmer on these runs!!
