Get Fit Slowly

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Sunday night, I didn’t sleep well at all. I had pre-race nervous dreams and I was asking myself if I knew what I was getting in to. I woke earlier than my alarm clock, around 4:30, but was able to fall soundly back to sleep by the time the alarm went of at 6:30. My body did not want to wake up. I felt sluggish and drowsy all the way up the freeway to West Linn.

When I parked my truck at Mary S. Young Park and got out about 8:00 I was starting to feel better. The weather totally sucked–chilly, and drizzly–the kind of weather that keeps me on the treadmill all Winter long. JD and I found each other about 8:15 and started walking around to loosen up our legs. It was comforting knowing that there was at least one other person in this race who had never run one before. We chatted about the site, our families and his new Garmin GPS watch (I ordered one for my wife last night). Before I knew it, the race-walkers were off on the course and it was our turn to line up.

The race itself was great. Pam was right, a race is a way to make running fun. The miles flew by much faster than any training run I’d ever been on. Watching all the people pre-race, and then looking up ahead at the long line of runners during the race was a pretty neat experience for me. I was totally expecting this to be the only race of my lifetime, but now I’m not so sure. I still don’t want to run a marathon, but another 10K, or maybe a half-marathon–some day.

I don’t have the fancy data like my partner does, so I’ll just tell you how I felt throughout the race and give you a quick play by play. Pam warned me not to go out too fast. She said that people who keep the same pace throughout the race inevitably do better than those who go hard and then give themselves breaks during the race. Since she’s run so many races, I decided to trust her advice and go with the steady race pace model.

During the first mile, I was still really nervous. This was mostly because I was passing A LOT of people. I was like a little red sports car zooming in and out of traffic on a crowded freeway. I didn’t think I was faster than so many people and I was hoping that they weren’t going to find me on the side of the road at mile 5–out of gas. I reached mile marker 1 in 8:42 and was pretty happy. I felt like I was running faster than I normally run and my split indicated that. I was a little winded and a little worried, but it was early and I was still warming up. I often take a mile or so to find my stride when I’m working out too, so I didn’t feel like it was such a big deal.

Without going into a ton of detail, here are the rest of my splits with a few comments.

• Mile 2–8:43
• Mile 3–8:05
• Mile 4–9:38
• Mile 5–8:17
• Mile 6–8:39
• Finish 53:40
• Pace–8:41 min/mile

Clearly mile 4 was the hardest mile of the race. At least half of it was up a hill leading away from the river. There were lots of slow runners here. I passed a few, and was passed by 4 runners during this mile. It should be noted that I passed back all but one of the 4 runners who passed me on the hill–this made me happy. A little bit more on this later.

If you’ve read JD’s report, you’ll know all about his “stealth hill.” This was mile 6. I told JD after the race that it didn’t seem to bother me, and my 6th mile split does seem to agree. I think it’s pretty funny how we can pysch ourselves out sometimes. JD had it in his head that this was going to be a tough part of the race, and for him it was. This could be a whole series of posts. Maybe I’ll work on it for later even though JD is the psychologist of the group.

Overall, I was really pleased with my performance. Here’s a link to the race results that are broken down by age, gender, and overall placements. I came in 72nd out of 169 people. I was 5th in my age group out of 6 racers. The top four people in each age group got a ribbon.

Remember earlier I said that I passed all but one person who passed me on the hill. Well, actually, I did pass him after the hill, but he passed me again later (somewhere after mile 5.5). I finished 8 seconds behind him and yes, he was 4th place in my age group. What a bummer. I chalk it up to a lack of race experience. When I was on the hill, I made a mental note to pass everyone who passed me, but I should have waited a bit longer before passing that last guy. I should have ran behind him and then passed him at the end instead of letting him run behind me and pass me at the end. Next time I’ll get him.

Overall, it was a great experience for me. I had fun. I ran faster than I thought I could. I learned some things about myself and how to run a race. I would definitely do it again some day.