Hey folks! I ran a 5k, and since it's been a while since I wrote one of these blog deals, I decided to write about it. On a side note, why do they call it writing something, even if you're typing it? Something to think about. Now on with the show.
The race in question is the 2011 Jail Break 5k put on by the Lexington County Sheriff's Department in Lexington, SC on 5/28/2011. I believe it was the 5th annual. I wasn't planning on doing this one because I had to work, but by the grace of something holy, I was able to take a half day. The race started at 8:30am, with registration and festivities starting at 6:30 am. I arrived at about 7:15, got my number and t-shirt. No swag bag; kinda disappointed in that. I was number 1311, which is translated into 311 out of 480 people. I was also registered in the Clydesdale division, which is any male over 200 pounds and any female over 160 pounds. AKA: The fat ass division, and I loved it.
As I was leaving the registration table I saw a couple of African-American gentlemen heading to the table. I didn't think anything of it until the lady asked their names. They spoke with an accent straight from Africa. "Great" I thought, "The Kenyans are here. Now I have no chance." headed back to my car and dropped my shirt off, pinned my number on, grabbed the Ipod and interval timer and changed from my crocs into my Mizunos.
By the time I returned to the staging area and fairly decent crowd had started to congregate and the DJ had showed up. With a computer and crappy speakers he cranked out the sounds of classic rock and the COPs theme song (several times). I didn't know anybody there and I wasn't planning on meeting anybody. I did a few acceleration gliders to loosen up and waited for the announcement.
The announcement was made to move to the starting line. Of course they had to make it right when I had to pee. I did my business and headed toward the starting line. When I exited the facilities everybody was at the starting line. I took my place in the rear of the pack with the strollers and old folk. I set my interval timer to a 4/1 ratio (that's 4 minute run with 1 minute walk), got the Ipod ready and waited for the start. The DJ with with the crappy sound system was going to start the race off. I could not hear a single word that guy was saying and just waited for everybody to start moving. I heard someone yell, and everybody started to move. I started the Ipod with the classic "Blackened" by Metallica and started the timer. I was off, and got passed by several strollers.
As I crossed the start line I heard this god awful "roaring" sound. What the hell was that. Was it the second coming of Christ, a zombie apocalypse... No, it was the Lexington County Sheriff's helicopter, flying low and scaring the turds out of people.
After my first 4 minutes, came the walk portion. People, as nice as they are and not knowing my plan, began to cheer me on and say stuff like, "keep pushing," and "you can't walk now." I just nodded, waved and took off after my minute walk time. The course was not bad, it just had a lot of slight incline hills. What I mean by a slight incline hill, is that it is not steep enough to kill you, but steep enough to burn your legs. As soon as the burn was over for one hill, I was going up another hill.
At about the half way mark a guy in a yellow Navy shirt passed me. Now, I was passed by a lot of people and since I'm not a racer I did not care. Navy shirt guy got about 40 yards in front of me and began to walk. Why does this guy stick out from the rest? I'll tell you. As I got close to this guy, he turned around, saw me and began to run. My 4 minutes of running was up, I started to walk, he looked at me and he began to walk. I passed him when I ran, and he passed me when I walked. This went on for the entire last half of the race. I was not trying to beat this guy, but he sure as hell wanted to beat me. He began to take more walk breaks and kept on trucking and passing him with some distance.
I turned a corner and saw the finish line. This guy was out in front, and I was in my walk portion. He began to run. I decided to run, then sprint. This is where the Galloway run-walk method comes into play. Since I was taking frequent walk breaks, I was conserving energy and recovering from my runs. I was able to spring the last .10 of the race without pain, or being winded. I passed Navy guy and left him way behind. I finished with a time of 34:29 and a pace of 11:17 and PR'ed. Only by a little less than 30 seconds, but a PR is a PR.
Unfortunately I was unable to stay for awards and festivities. As soon as I was done I grabbed me a bottle of water, walked around for a bit, got in my car and left. I had to go to work.
I like to think that I help motivate a person today. I'm pretty sure that the Navy guy was thinking to himself, "I got to beat that fat guy." He was so determined to be beat by me that he pushed hard to the end. Your welcome Navy guy.
