Every Race is an Adventure!

With the annual neighborhood 5K being this Saturday, Larry and I just ran the course a couple of times this morning. It felt good to be out running again. The soreness behind my left knee feels quite a bit better. We'll see how it responds to running on it again.

I ended up running solo this morning. It was a beautiful morning for a run.

After a 2.5 mile warm up I found myself at the start of the neighborhood 5K course I'll be running Saturday. I decided to run the course, not all out, but pushing pretty hard. I wanted to see where my fitness was after the short layoff, see how my leg held up to the quicker pace, remember what it feels like to run tired, and otherwise mentally prepare for the race.

The course is a winding loop that can be summarized (not exactly accurate but close enough) as one mile downhill, one mile flat, one mile uphill, with a final lap around the track at Northridge Park.

Since all of the significant downhill is in the first mile, much of it right at the start, you pretty much have to start out fast so as to not waste the good downhill. This morning I was breathing pretty hard this first mile, though I felt like I was barely under an 8:00 pace. I didn't look at my watch until the end of the first mile and was shocked (and relieved) when I saw the first mile split was 6:30. I knew I couldn't hold that pace for the level and uphill miles. I ended up finishing in 21:16. My Garmin only measured the course at around 3.0, averaging around a 7:00/mi pace.

While there might be a few young runners that will challenge me Saturday (in 16 years I've never won this race), the only one with a recent 5K time is Taylor who ran this same course last Saturday in 20:13 in the stake YM/YW 5K race, a little over a minute faster than what I ran today. I need to drop 20 seconds per mile, but I think that is within the realm of possibility. In recent years I've normally run that first mile in around 6:00 instead of 6:30, and holding a quicker pace is always easier with a little competition. I'll also be in my lighter racing shoes instead of the heavier trainers I was wearing this morning. (I think I've almost convinced myself.)

Overall I'm very encouraged by this morning's run. My leg didn't bother me, even at the quicker pace, and it looks like maybe I'll at least be able to challenge some of the young bucks a little come Saturday. More importantly, I feel like I'm finally ready to get back into my normal training to get ready for the Wasatch Back Relay and beyond.

I ran with Larry and Wayne this morning. It was great to have Wayne after him missing a few runs. We wandered around for four miles, then followed the 5K course at about an 8:30/mi pace, then ran home for a total of about 7.4 miles.

I guess my hat has become part of my running persona. When I went out to meet Larry and Wayne they asked if it was really me because I didn't have my hat on and I always wear my hat. When I realized I didn't have it on (it's a very comfortable hat so I often forget I'm wearing it) I asked them to wait while I went back in for it.

I love my hat. It keeps the heat in when it's cold; keeps me cool, shades my eyes, and protects my bald head when it's hot; helps keep my glasses clear when it's raining; makes me more visible (it's white); I use the bill to shield headlights from my eyes in the dark; and most important of all, I think I look pretty good in it (and maybe it makes me look a little taller).

Sorry Novell guys, but I won't be running at noon again today. I plan to return to running most Mondays and Wednesdays at noon. I just wanted to focus on the neighborhood run this week, and to support Larry as he also prepares for it.

My primary goal this morning was to see if I could help pace Larry to a sub-24:00 time on the neighborhood 5K course. Larry has been the caretaker of the neighbor 5K run for most if not all its 20 year history, and it continues to be a great event every year. Larry has run every year except maybe one or two I think, and he has never run it slower than 24:00, but he was concerned about this year.

He asked me to pace him to a 7:00 first mile (downhill) and then he wanted to average 8:30/mi for the last two. He hit the first mile marker at 7:00 and held sub-8:30 for next two and finished in 23:43. I knew he could do it, and it was only a training run. He said it was really hard and he doesn't look forward to going through it again on Saturday, but I think he'll run even faster.

Wayne also ran with us today. After the first mile he was still running with us but we encouraged him to go on ahead and he finished over a minute ahead of us. 

Well, I was right about believing I had a chance of going faster than Taylor's last week time of 20:13, but I was wrong about Taylor not having a 19:30 (his goal for today) in him. I finished 2nd in 19:54, a course PR for me, but Taylor finished in 19:33.

I couldn't have wished for the race to turn out any better. I wanted to give Taylor a run for his money, and would have beaten him if I could, but I wanted him to have a good race, too. A boost in self-confidence and self-esteem can help many a young man like Taylor.

At the start there was the normal assortment of participants: kids of all ages, teenagers, young parents with strollers, middle agers, empty nesters, and grandparents...bikers, scooter-ers, walkers, joggers, novice runners and the more serious runners.

They started the bikers and scooter-ers first then started the walkers/runners. There is a long downhill at the start. Taylor and I dodged the little kids sprinting ahead of us, then slowly moved to the front of the other teenage runners whose initial sprints lasted a little longer than the smaller kids. By a mile in it was pretty clear it was going to be between Taylor and me.

At the end of the first long hill I glanced at my watch and our pace was 5:33. When I looked again at my watch as we approached the mile 1 marked it was blank. I have no idea what happened, but it was off. I turned it back on and ignored it for the rest of the race.

Taylor and I ran more or less together until about 2.3 miles in. For some reason he likes to run on the sidewalks, while I stayed on the street (which is the official course). The sidewalks gave him a shorter distance on the turns, but he ran the tangents so poorly as he switched from sidewalk to sidewalk that it all balanced out. I explained running tangents to him...after the race of course. :)

We caught the young bikers by mile 1, and a young girl in a pink jacket on a pink bike (Jaycee) decided to ride near us because we knew where to go. This was working out fine until about 2.3 miles into the race. There is a left turn onto 1600 North. She was a little ahead of us as we made the turn and started up the hill. Taylor passed her on the left and I passed her on the right. As we started to pass her Taylor put in a burst of speed. I don't know if he was trying to leave me behind or just trying to get around Jaycee. Anyway, as he passed her he apparently bumped her handle bars because she crashed to the road. We both stopped to back to her aid. As we did we noticed that Taylor's dad, who had been stopping at various points in his car to watch the race, was also on his way to help her. Since it looked like she was okay, I told Taylor we should continue the race, which we did. I don't think we lost more than 5 seconds or so. I was impressed with how naturally and quickly Taylor was willing to give up his quest for glory to stop and help Jaycee.

This happened at the beginning of the two long uphill sections that don't end until the last loop around the park to the finish line. Taylor slowly pulled ahead of me on the uphills and held on to beat me by 21 seconds, a well earned victory. I was pleased to overhear Taylor tell people after the race that I pushed him the whole way, and that he was hurting. Mission accomplished. I just wanted to make him work for it and earn it. I didn't mind him winning. I got my sub-20:00 course PR, and Taylor had to (I mean got to) take the traveling trophy home...an old running shoe mounted on a stand and painted gold.

Since Larry doesn't blog, I'll mention that he met his goal to break 24:00, and finished around 23:30, 10 seconds faster than last year. He was really nervous this year. Before the race he showed me that his resting heart rate, normally around 49 I think, was in the 90's. He was worried, but I wasn't. I knew he could do it.

Karen, and my two daughters Emily and Amy, walked the course together with some others. As I was watching runners come in imagine my delight when I saw my 12 year old daughter Emily running strongly for the finish. She actually had pretty good form, considering she never runs. She had left Karen and Amy a while back and decided to run the rest of the way. I've had no success trying to get any of my family members to run in the past, so this was a very pleasant surprise.

What an awesome event! The combination of exercise, beautiful weather, camaraderie, and food is hard to beat. I thoroughly enjoyed cheering in the other finishers, the very young to the not quite so young, the very small to the very large, the faster to the slower. I especially enjoyed seeing the very small kids sprinting for the finish. Everyone was a winner.