"Race" I guess the term is relative. Today is my first time toeing a starting line since Nov 26th of last year. Continuing with my wife's half training she found a free 5K at Sugarhouse. This was through a neighbor who used to work at the IMHC hospital. For being free it was very well organized and nicely stocked. The goal was for my wife to use it as a speed workout and for me to test my legs. To make sure I kept it under control I was going to be pushing both girls in the stroller. We ran to the start, about two miles from our house. As we entered the park we ran into my PT. Very fitting. I hadn't seen him since May. I gave him the quick racap. No I'm not 100% yes I'm running but only about 1/4 of my normal mileage. I'm about to do something stupid and try to race. He just smiled at that... I'm sure he's heard it all before dealing with crazy runners all the time. At the registration it was very well organized and started exactly on time. At the start we noticed one of the tires was a little flat to boot... The course was 2+ clockwise loops of the park starting near the greenhouse. I started about 10 rows back but was in about 15th place by the duck pond. There was actually another guy ahead of me with a double stroller as well. From the gun it was pretty obvious who was going to win (a younger guy in an orange top) but the next few places were up for grabs. When I hit the hill in the NW corner of the park the extra ~75lbs I was pushing sure took its toll but I continued to tick off the marks. By the NE corner I was gaining on the other stroller guy. I ended up catching him on the hill in that corner. He looked strong and only had one kid in his double. I thought it was going to be a dual but he just let me go when I mentioned to my daughter that our goal was to catch the guy in orange. My younger daughter just enjoyed the ride. My oldest gave me a constant play-by-play about the people ahead of us and the people going the "wrong way". During the second loop we were already catching up with the walkers and my daughter kept asking why I was going so slow and how we could pass all these people to "win". I explained to her that there were only 6 people ahead of us (my last count before we started lapping people). I next explained that the next person to pass was a guy in blue about 100m up. I was hurting though. It had been way to long since I had attempted to exert myself. We did start making up some ground but then the next uphill started. To my surprise he came back and we passed him just when we were starting down the final downhill. It was a blitz down and around the duck pond to the finish. When I crossed the line I heard someone mention something about second? but I wasn't sure. There were no official results and they just gave you a card with your time written on it. The winner was only 46 sec up on me so maybe some of the other people that I thought were ahead of me were really just runners in the park. Not sure but I am counting it as a fifth place finish. The highlight of the race was the fact that my wife was the first woman overall. This is only her second 5K in about 5 yrs. We cooled down a little walking and then ran home.
So what does this mean? Am I back? Not really. It was nice to get out and push hard, effort wise at least. I think the loaded double stroller definitely slowed the time today but it was the same pace as my last marathon so I have a long way to go. I think the most important part of today's effort was the fact that I enjoyed it with my family. My girls like the tour of the park and I enjoy seeing my wife getting back into running. My knee is no worse for the effort today (Sunday) and that also makes me very happy. It is still sore but that may be something I will have to learn to live with. Can I imagine running ~1 min/mi faster?, not at this point... But you never know. I hope this experience helps remove some of the doubt in the back of my head and gets me moving again.
| 