My First "Real" 5K

Back in December, I signed up for the St. Luke's 5K in April, thinking it would be my first real race. But after running in San Diego over New Year's with Nate, I knew I couldn't wait that long. I started looking for a race in February and found the Polar Bear Run in Sea Isle City, NJ, which happend to also be on my birthday. Since I was only running between 2 and 2.5 miles, I knew I would have to pick up my training a bit. By a week before the race, I was up to 3.2 miles and was averaging under 9 min/miles on the hills of Clinton, despite a minor setup back on Super Bowl Sunday with a calf pull. Taking a week off, two weeks before the race, was almost as hard as avoiding sick people for the last 2 weeks. I did shorter, more intense runs last week and by Friday was as ready as I could be.

Last night, I had a good dinner (whole wheat pasta, chicken sausage, mushroom & broccoli) and tried to get to bed early, knowing I wouldn't sleep well. As I expected, I was up at 6:30, even though the alarm was set for 7. I had my yogurt, got dressed, packed some cereal, a quick stop at Citispot, and I was off for Sea Isle. I took the route that followed the Garden State most of the way and the musical choice was Sirius/XM's Springsteen channel. They were featuring acoustic/stripped down versions of his songs, which fit my mood and probably kept me from driving 85 mph.

As it was, I arrived two hours early for the race. This would be no surprise to my former hockey teammates - I was always the first one in the locker room for games. I'm not generally early - just for competing. To say I had nervous energy today would be an understatement. After collecting my bib (#16) and my souvenir t-shirt - I tried to chill in the car with my iPad. What I ended up doing was taking a jog, endlessly stretching, walking the Promenade (Sea Isle's boardwalk), going the bathroom twice and generally just nervously bouncing.

At Noon, we finally lined up for the race and unfortunately, they did not have people grouped by pace. When the horn sounded, I didn't really have to worry about starting too fast, it took a bit to get everyone moving. I was using RunKeeper on my phone and clicked Start as I passed the start/finish line. The phone was a blessing and (maybe) a curse. At the 0.5 mile mark, my pace was 9:30, so I decided to push it a bit. I may have over compensated for the slow start, but luckily didn't do it too much. The race heads down the Promenade, then into the streets. At the half way point, it turns and follows the same course back. The course out was dead downwind which meant coming back was tough. The last part on the Promenade was particularly bad. When I was on the Promenade, I tried to run on the rail so I could watch the Ocean. As I was running, I passed people and got passed, but it's hard to know whether someone is really faster or slower than you given the start and people's different styles of running. I took the advice of a friend, "your pace, your race", and just tried to be comfortable. At the end of the race, they filed us into cattle chutes and collected a tag off our bibs. They stopped us so quickly, I actually ran into the person in front of me. Not really sure how they timed us, but the phone said 27:58 (See it on RunKeeper). That's better than I expected but not as good as I wished for. I guess that defines racing.

After the race, I jogged to my car, switched into some warmer clothes and headed to the tent to get a bagel and juice. I didn't stay for the awards and raffle and speeches, not because Autism isn't a great cause (it is), I was just ready to head home. A 2.5 hour ride home maybe isn't the best idea after a run (even with a stop for coffee) - I was pretty stiff when I got home. A long shower, some Advil and a beer seemed to help though.

Thanks to everyone for putting up with me prattling on about this race for the past 2 weeks. It was the culmination of the past 8 months of going from overweight slug to reasonably fit runner.

Special thanks to Paula for being my Sensei, Yoda, and inspiration on this journey. She talked me down when I had the calf pull two weeks before the race and gave me great tips for the last week of training and running the race. I'm still on pace for the OC Half this year.

Things I've Learned Running

About 5 months ago, I started trying to lose weight with diet and exercise. The diet (Weightwatchers for Men) has worked well with 25 lbs. lost - I'll post about that another time. I knew I needed to exercise, too or I wouldn't stick with it. I started walking daily at a pace of 2 miles in 45 minutes, got that down to under 25 minutes and decided to start running. Today for the first time I averaged under 10 min per mile for the 2.5 miles I ran. I've been thinking about what I've learned along the way so it seemed a good milestone to post. So, in no particular order....

• The first five minutes of a run are the hardest.
• "Runner's high" exists - once I get 10 minutes in, I feel I can run all day.
• I'm too old to run every day - or maybe my knees are.
• The Arc Trainer is good exercise on the days I don't run.
  
• If 2 "in love" teens are walking towards you on the sidewalk, no way they are letting go of each other to let you pass - you are going in the street.
• Despite the heavy breathing and pounding shoes, people cannot hear you when you come up behind them - or maybe they are just in their own world.
• Steroids are real - I had an injection in my hip and recorded my best run and Arc Trainer 2 days later.
• My sweat stinks!
• There are lots of cool clothes and toys for running.
• RunKeeper on my phone is a cool app.
• Most runners are nice people - they wave as they pass, share tips on-line and are generally helpful.
• To paraphrase Yogi Berra, 90% of running is half mental. I had never run as much as I did in the Turkey Trot, so the next time out, I "knew" I could run most of the way, rather than splitting running and walking.
• More running = more beer. :) In WeightWatchers, 25 minutes of running gets you 1 beer.
• Having a resting pulse of 40 is pretty cool. It's fun to freak out Doctors/nurses and gets you mad props when they find out you exercise.
  

I'm sure there's more but at least for now, to quote Paula, I'm going to Keep Smiling, Keep Moving.

An Accidental Quasi 5K

Today I ran/walked in the Flemington Turkey Trot. The plan was to do the 2 mile Fun Run/Walk but it didn't quite turn out that way. This was my first Turkey Trot and first event of any kind where I had a number on my shirt. I arrived early and found a parking spot at the Court House and found the rest of Team Pro-Activity for a picture on the court house steps. Pro-Activity had over 150 runners in the event! After a potty stop and finding the alley for the 2 milers, we waited for all the 5K runners to head out and then it was (a slow) start to the run. I worked my way past the slow walkers and started running. I saw the first turn off for the 2 mile (which unfortunately some of the 5K'ers got sent down as well). After merging back in with the runners at about the 1 mile mark, somehow I completely missed the second turn off for the 2 mile run. After realizing that, I figured I'd just keep going since a) I felt pretty good and b) I'd feel pretty silly running backward thru the race. I managed to run about 2/3 of the race with fast walking in between. I figure the course I ran was about 3 miles and I did it in somewhere around 40 minutes. Here's the course map - I was supposed to take those pink lines - oh well - I made it and feel great.