After much more time off than I had been hoping, I finally started running again about two weeks ago. I say started running, but really, all I was doing was a mile on the treadmill. My knee was still shaky, but wearing my nifty compression pants seemed to help keep things in line and it didn't hurt while I was running, so I figured I was okay. About this time, talk suddenly surfaced of people doing the 10K I had mentioned a month earlier.
While I knew there was no way I could run the 10K, I was intrigued by the 5K. Still, it seemed awfully risky to run a 5K with almost no running in the prior month and a bad knee to boot. However, I've never been particularly good at being smart and the lure of doing a final run for the season was too great to overcome. I told myself I'd take it easy, and if necessary, walk. Just a fun outing with some friends.
 |
| The Girls! (photo credit: Dave Chabot) |
Athleta Unleash the SHE, like it sounds, is a women's only run. Still, it just wouldn't be right to be waking up obscenely early on a weekend without the guys, so Dave and Randy kindly agreed to be our sherpas for the event. The day was chilly, but not terribly cold, though it was overcast and threatening rain. The 10K started a half hour before the 5K, so I was able to cheer the rest of the girls at the start.
Something strange had happened after we got to Blaine (where the run was). My earlier thoughts of a nice easy run evaporated in my faint embarrassment that I wasn't doing the 10K and suddenly I found myself telling people that I was going to try and PR the run. Now, think about this for a moment - I had just had my best 5K a month or so before, but I had literally run less than 4 miles TOTAL since then. My knee was iffy at best and rainbow tights or no, I was pretty sure I was going to be hurting by the end. But yeah, I was going to PR...or as Randy helpfully suggested, "PR or ER".
After a longish half hour spent wandering about the sports complex that was hosting the run and getting colder by the moment, it was showtime. I handed my jacket off to the sherpas and disappeared in the crowd. I tried to get as far forward as I could, in part to stay warm and in part to avoid getting stuck behind the walkers. The countdown went and we were off!
Despite my efforts, I was definitely stuck in the midst of the slower people. I started passing as many as I could while still keeping a reasonable pace, but I had to stretch out and sprint a few steps around a few groups. The course wound around the parking lot of the sports complex before heading out, so I saw the guys, but apparently I am super stealthy in my purple and rainbow tights so they didn't see me.
The run was pretty uneventful, all in all. The course was very flat, mostly sidewalk, and other than being pretty congested, nice to run on. I settled into my pace (1-2-3-4-5-6), and zoned out a bit. I do like to run with my eyes closed, which is probably unwise, but it works for me. I did almost run into one girl, though. Whoops! The only iffy spot was a bit of sand that had washed out of a driveway, but certainly nothing to worry about.
I had no idea how fast I was running, but I felt pretty strong. While I had said I was going to PR, out on the course my mind started wandering to my old goal of doing a sub-30 minute 5K this year. It didn't seem likely, but it kept flitting through my mind how cool it would be to manage. While I was pondering this, I decided that I was going to kick up my pace at the 2 mile marker and try and finish the last mile plus as strong as possible.
The marker came, and even though I was feeling the distance (which was now my longest run in over a month), I kicked it up. I started counting faster and telling myself that if I ran faster, the discomfort wouldn't last as long. The end of the course once again wound through the parking lot, so I could see the finish line a bit before I was there. I dug deep and found some extra kick to finish at a sprint, my insides twisting so hard I thought for sure I was going to be sick. As I ran by the finish line, I saw the 10K clock said 57: something.
After I settled my stomach, I milled around the finish area a bit, trying to find my peeps. I felt like I had run a pretty good race, but with no clock to go by, I had no idea if that meant a PR or just some disappointment. I located the rest of my people by the finish line, startling them, as they thought I hadn't finished yet. As I said, purple and rainbow - super stealthy. Thankfully, the guys take sherpa duty seriously, so Randy had my jacket on hand to ward off the chilly air as we waited for our remaining runner to come in from the 10K course.
I had a sneaking suspicion at this point that I might have done better than PR, but I refused to let myself get exited until I saw the results. After an interminable wait, they were posted and there it was...bib 686 29:23!! I can't really explain how excited I was by this. For those who have never been nonathletic, I suspect that it wouldn't mean anything. For me, though, this was a validation that I was actually getting better, that I could call myself a runner and not just some fat chick out jogging. It's an arbitrary line, to be sure, but it was important to me.
I was, I'm reasonably sure, obnoxious for the rest of the day. I actually started to doubt that I had read the results correctly, and was semi-obsessively checking the online results until I could confirm that I had really done it. After that, I was over the moon excited and pleased with myself, and more smiley than anyone who knows me would believe. It was a great, great day, and I'm super excited I was able to share it with so many of my friends. Now, for the next goal!
Unleash the SHE results - (If you want to see some really impressive running, check out what the rest of the Owatonna ladies did for the 10K)
No comments:
Post a Comment