This morning I ran in my first 5K race.
It was called the Morven Park 5K, though, it might as well have been called the Morven Park Ass-Kicker. Because, that’s what it did.
Here’s the story: I had trained (in a slacker kind of way) for the race. Basically…I had not run much (umm…or…at all) in the last 10 or so years. So, a couple of months ago I started running – about 3 times a week according to some recommended 5K schedule. And I now can run 3 miles fairly easily (for those that aren’t Canadian, that’s about the distance in a 5K). So, I thought I’d be able to run all the way on this one pretty easily, as well.
One small problem. I had been doing all my running on pavement – without any obstacles. However, Morven Park is an equestrian center. There are no paved roads…it was all (well, mostly) high grass that was matted down. And some genius thought it would be really cute to add horse obstacles (you know, the things you see the horses jump over during the Olympics) along the way.
Our group that ran this race consisted of Jason (my co-worker), Colleen (his wife), Becky (also my co-worker) and me. Oh, by the way, Mark Karl at AMS, a company that we do a lot of business with paid our entry fee. Gotta give the sponsor a shout-out for all 3 readers of the Faircloth Five blog.
Well, you should know that Jason and I have been sandbagging each other for a month now about how we would do. It wasn’t trash talking. Jason has run 2 marathons. I had no visions of beating him. I did, however, think that he would kind of take it easy and I’d be able to hang. So, we’ve been downplaying what we think our time might be. Realistically, I was shooting for under 32 minutes.
But the gamesmanship started early. Jason told me to just go down Wirt Avenue and I would run right into Morven Park. Ummm…more appropriately, if I go down Wirt Avenue, I’ll dead end at a cemetery. Man…I haven’t even run and the score is already: Jason 1, Scott 0. This is not looking good. However, I know that I’m prepared for this race. I even ate a Fruit and Yogurt Parfait for breakfast. OK, so I ate a chicken biscuit, too. But, at least part of my breakfast was the wholesome goodness of a Fruit and Yogurt Parfait. But I digress -- eventually, I found the place and got registered just in time.
So, fast-forward to the starting line….Colleen, Jason, Becky and I are milling about. The dude that’s supposed to tell us “GO” instead tells us a bunch of random trivia for 5 minutes. I’m about to pee in my pants and really wish he would just say “GO!” Finally, he does.
Colleen takes off like a bat out of hell and I don’t see her again for the rest of the race. She finished in about 5 minutes. She comes in first in her age group and was the third girl to finish. Impressive. By the time I crossed the finish line, she was already showered, dressed to kill and was ready to go clubbing.
Becky and Jason kind of hung back with me for awhile, but I took an early lead on them – in retrospect – a crucial error. I think my pace was too fast, too early. But I felt great early on. I’ve been struggling with a shin problem…I think shin splints. But because the race was on grass and the ground was soft, my shins felt awesome. Empowered by that, I passed Jason and Becky. In a rare moment of trash talk, I had mentioned that I should pin my race number on my back, because that’s all they would be seeing of me. As I passed, I regretted not doing that.
After about 10 minutes, however, I noticed I was unusually fatigued. The grass seemed to make my quads really tired. Not hurting, necessarily…just really, really fatigued. And then I hit the first of about 50 “obstacles” that would be the bane of my existence for the next 20 minutes. Becky passed me around this first obstacle. I spent the next 20 minutes watching her orange Virginia Tech shirt grow smaller and smaller.
So, at that point, I gave up on catching her. She apparently encountered a bunch of deer along the way. I never saw them. All I saw were little dancing bears because I was probably hallucinating at this point.
But Jason was still behind me. Just fight through this and I’ll get my second wind, I thought to myself. Umm…the second wind never came. At about the 18 minute mark (I know this because the 17+ minute live version of the song “Crazy Game of Poker” by O.A.R had just finished playing on my MP3 player), I turn a corner and all I see is this huge hill. Actually, it might as well have been Mt. Everest. Jason (being the experienced runner) had told me it was OK to take a 15 second walk break to rejuvenate. These words kept ringing through my ears.
So, finally, I listen to his wisdom. I take a quick walk break. Just at that point, Jason goes running by me…looking quite refreshed. Yes, that’s right, Jason: 2, Scott: 0.
A guy with a cane passed me at this point. I’m not kidding. Gramps passed me. OK…so maybe he didn’t have a cane, but I’m certain he was a broken hip just waiting to happen.
After Jason gets out of reach, I began running again. My 15 second break was probably more like 30 seconds. I begin running again and don’t walk again until we hit another steep hill that has another obstacle on it. I wanted to cuss. I really did. Instead, I walked up that hill and left the cussing to others.
I ran most of the rest of the way. As I neared the finish line, I could see Kelly and the kids holding a sign cheering me on and that, of course, made me happy. Colleen (22:21), Becky (27:54) and Jason (27:43) had been finished for minutes and they were there to see me gasp across the finish line, as well (final score, for those counting, Jason: 3, Scott: 0). Becky actually came in second in her age group -- surprising even herself. I'm sure she'll be wearing her medal all week at work. Because I had stopped to walk twice, I thought my time would be like 40 minutes. Surprisingly, though, as I crossed the finish line, my time was 30:48, a minute under what I was shooting for. A pleasant surprise, to say the least.
It was called the Morven Park 5K, though, it might as well have been called the Morven Park Ass-Kicker. Because, that’s what it did.
Here’s the story: I had trained (in a slacker kind of way) for the race. Basically…I had not run much (umm…or…at all) in the last 10 or so years. So, a couple of months ago I started running – about 3 times a week according to some recommended 5K schedule. And I now can run 3 miles fairly easily (for those that aren’t Canadian, that’s about the distance in a 5K). So, I thought I’d be able to run all the way on this one pretty easily, as well.
One small problem. I had been doing all my running on pavement – without any obstacles. However, Morven Park is an equestrian center. There are no paved roads…it was all (well, mostly) high grass that was matted down. And some genius thought it would be really cute to add horse obstacles (you know, the things you see the horses jump over during the Olympics) along the way.
Our group that ran this race consisted of Jason (my co-worker), Colleen (his wife), Becky (also my co-worker) and me. Oh, by the way, Mark Karl at AMS, a company that we do a lot of business with paid our entry fee. Gotta give the sponsor a shout-out for all 3 readers of the Faircloth Five blog.
Well, you should know that Jason and I have been sandbagging each other for a month now about how we would do. It wasn’t trash talking. Jason has run 2 marathons. I had no visions of beating him. I did, however, think that he would kind of take it easy and I’d be able to hang. So, we’ve been downplaying what we think our time might be. Realistically, I was shooting for under 32 minutes.
But the gamesmanship started early. Jason told me to just go down Wirt Avenue and I would run right into Morven Park. Ummm…more appropriately, if I go down Wirt Avenue, I’ll dead end at a cemetery. Man…I haven’t even run and the score is already: Jason 1, Scott 0. This is not looking good. However, I know that I’m prepared for this race. I even ate a Fruit and Yogurt Parfait for breakfast. OK, so I ate a chicken biscuit, too. But, at least part of my breakfast was the wholesome goodness of a Fruit and Yogurt Parfait. But I digress -- eventually, I found the place and got registered just in time.
So, fast-forward to the starting line….Colleen, Jason, Becky and I are milling about. The dude that’s supposed to tell us “GO” instead tells us a bunch of random trivia for 5 minutes. I’m about to pee in my pants and really wish he would just say “GO!” Finally, he does.
Colleen takes off like a bat out of hell and I don’t see her again for the rest of the race. She finished in about 5 minutes. She comes in first in her age group and was the third girl to finish. Impressive. By the time I crossed the finish line, she was already showered, dressed to kill and was ready to go clubbing.
Becky and Jason kind of hung back with me for awhile, but I took an early lead on them – in retrospect – a crucial error. I think my pace was too fast, too early. But I felt great early on. I’ve been struggling with a shin problem…I think shin splints. But because the race was on grass and the ground was soft, my shins felt awesome. Empowered by that, I passed Jason and Becky. In a rare moment of trash talk, I had mentioned that I should pin my race number on my back, because that’s all they would be seeing of me. As I passed, I regretted not doing that.
After about 10 minutes, however, I noticed I was unusually fatigued. The grass seemed to make my quads really tired. Not hurting, necessarily…just really, really fatigued. And then I hit the first of about 50 “obstacles” that would be the bane of my existence for the next 20 minutes. Becky passed me around this first obstacle. I spent the next 20 minutes watching her orange Virginia Tech shirt grow smaller and smaller.
So, at that point, I gave up on catching her. She apparently encountered a bunch of deer along the way. I never saw them. All I saw were little dancing bears because I was probably hallucinating at this point.
But Jason was still behind me. Just fight through this and I’ll get my second wind, I thought to myself. Umm…the second wind never came. At about the 18 minute mark (I know this because the 17+ minute live version of the song “Crazy Game of Poker” by O.A.R had just finished playing on my MP3 player), I turn a corner and all I see is this huge hill. Actually, it might as well have been Mt. Everest. Jason (being the experienced runner) had told me it was OK to take a 15 second walk break to rejuvenate. These words kept ringing through my ears.
So, finally, I listen to his wisdom. I take a quick walk break. Just at that point, Jason goes running by me…looking quite refreshed. Yes, that’s right, Jason: 2, Scott: 0.
A guy with a cane passed me at this point. I’m not kidding. Gramps passed me. OK…so maybe he didn’t have a cane, but I’m certain he was a broken hip just waiting to happen.
After Jason gets out of reach, I began running again. My 15 second break was probably more like 30 seconds. I begin running again and don’t walk again until we hit another steep hill that has another obstacle on it. I wanted to cuss. I really did. Instead, I walked up that hill and left the cussing to others.
I ran most of the rest of the way. As I neared the finish line, I could see Kelly and the kids holding a sign cheering me on and that, of course, made me happy. Colleen (22:21), Becky (27:54) and Jason (27:43) had been finished for minutes and they were there to see me gasp across the finish line, as well (final score, for those counting, Jason: 3, Scott: 0). Becky actually came in second in her age group -- surprising even herself. I'm sure she'll be wearing her medal all week at work. Because I had stopped to walk twice, I thought my time would be like 40 minutes. Surprisingly, though, as I crossed the finish line, my time was 30:48, a minute under what I was shooting for. A pleasant surprise, to say the least.
So, you’re probably thinking after this torture, I’ll never run again. Well, actually, for some reason known only to God – I’m ready to run another. Just not today.
1 comment:
Babe, you did AWESOME! I am so proud of you for running!!! You are 'DA MAN!!!!!!!!!
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