Each of the last two years, I have participated in one leg of the Midsummer Night 5K Series. There is one run in June, one in July, and one in August. The event takes place in Ardmore and features an approximately one-mile loop that everyone takes three tours around. The course doesn't feature any large hills and the races go off at 7:30 in the evening, making the event very friendly to those recreational runners who don't want to face a soul-crushing uphill climb in the brutal summer heat. I meant to go to the run in June, but I forgot the date of the race and ended up receiving an e-mail saying it was sold out. So I made sure to mark my calendar for the July edition.
(Did I mention that it was also Flounder's birthday? Happy Birthday Flounder! Can't believe that guy is 44 years old. I kid, I kid...)
Flounder was one of many KOPers taking part in the race. Coach Tim was there like he always is. Justin R and Borden were there as well. And Laura A snuck up behind me just as I was walking up to the registration area. Hadn't seen her in quite a while, but here she was, ready to kick my butt along with hundreds of other participants.
The plan was to get a nice, somewhat leisurely workout in, with a goal of finishing in the 27-28 minute range. That wasn't a slow jog, but it also wasn't going hard for three miles either. The biggest problem for me? The same problem I've been having all summer long: the heat. Despite it being 7:30 at night, this was the warmest outdoor setting I had worked out in this year. It felt just as bad as the inside of the gym has felt. Maybe I died earlier in the year and didn't realize I had already punched my ticket to hell. Whatever the case may be, this was going to end up as yet another sweating-and-breathing strugglefest.
I headed to the starting line with Flounder as Justin and Laura lined up together within shouting distance of us. Tim was likely closer to the front as he would probably be among the runners who I'd have to move out of the way of because they were finishing lap #3 while I was still working on lap #2. I wasn't sure where Borden was. I wouldn't bump into him until much later in the race. We took off and I could see Laura start zig-zagging her way through the field in the first quarter mile. Justin was not too far in front of me during that first portion of the run. Flounder was out ahead of me too, although I wound up passing him as we went by the only water station on the run. I wasn't pressing very hard, but I was doing my share of zig-zagging as well due to the presence of large groups of runners who seemed to be playing a mid-race game of Red Rover, preventing anyone behind them from passing.
I was about three-quarters of the way through the first loop when the heat started affecting me. I could tell my stride was shortening. My breathing was beginning to get heavier. As we came down the small hill that leads the runners back to where we started, Flounder went on by me. There was a little part of me that wanted to try and go with him, but the point of this run wasn't to go as hard as I could go. It wouldn't have mattered anyway as I later discovered I wouldn't have been able to keep up with him even if I had gone all out.
We passed by the first mile and I saw the timer show 8:20. That wasn't bad at all, but I knew that I wouldn't be keeping that pace for the remaining two miles. As we made our way back towards the water station, Flounder pulled away from me until he became lost in the sea of people that had moved on ahead, maintaining the pace they had run during that first mile. I was just trying to remain calm. My hamstrings were beginning to get tighter and I was becoming drenched in sweat. Doing this 5K now seemed like a terrible idea and stopping felt like the best solution available. Instead, I kept jogging along as all sorts of people went by. As I neared the 3/4 point of the loop, I had my first encounter with my least favorite type of runner: stop-and-sprint guy. At first I was jealous of him because he was walking. I wanted to be walking, although I suspected that once I stopped, it would be hard to start running again. This guy wasn't having that problem. Shortly after I passed him, he went running by me at a rate of speed that made me think I wouldn't see him the rest of the race. But I did see him again. And again. And again.
I went by the two mile marker and the timer let me know that my second mile took about 10 minutes. Super slow. Didn't care. Just had to keep trotting along for one more mile. Two girls ran around me, then stopped directly in front of me as a friend yelled to them that she wanted to take their picture. Annoying. Since I had passed the finish line, I no longer had to worry about any of the leaders lapping me (plenty of them had already done so). That meant I could move all the way to the inside of the course. Why run any farther than I needed to? I passed the water station a final time (I didn't stop for a drink, but I was later told they had run out of water even if I did require hydration). I passed stop-and-sprint guy as he walked along. At about the half-mile point in the loop, I was hurting pretty good. Stop-and-sprint guy went by again. Then I heard a friendly voice. Borden was running with a couple of buddies. I had no idea they were behind me all this time, but now they too were going on by. I tried to lengthen my stride, but it wasn't meant to be.
Well, it wasn't meant to be just yet. As we came down the small hill a final time, gravity helped me lengthen my stride. I knew there was only about a 1/4 mile to go, so I tried to ride that momentum for as long as I could. I went by stop-and-sprint guy. I went by Borden and his friends. It was just a couple more turns to the finish and I began swinging my arms in an effort to keep this push going all the way to the finish line. Then I gave a thumbs up to the camera, as you can see in the first 10 seconds of the video below:
It's finally over!
My final time on-camera: just squeaked in under 30 minutes. But as Flounder told me before the race, the time captured on camera ain't my chip time. So my official final time for the 5K: 29:38.
I went over to the tubs filled with water, eager to quench my thirst with some ice-cold H2O. To my dismay, there were two volunteers sitting at a table that was behind two large containers that had been filled with water bottles sitting in an ice bath. Now those containers held melted ice and there were no water bottles floating in them. Instead, the volunteers just sat there with cases of lukewarm water in front of them, not bothering to put them in the containers to get cold. Way to do as little as possible!
After guzzling down some room temperature water, I sat down with Justin, Flounder, Borden, and his friends for a few minutes. Borden and his buddies then took off to go see Guns N' Roses in concert. Justin, Flounder, and I made our way over to Hykel's Bar and Grill for some post-race refreshments and to celebrate Flounder's birthday. The beer was much colder (and refreshing) than the post-race water.
Saturday preview: Brawl In The Burbs! I fill in for Luke as part of team Maybe Coach Aimee (But Probably Not). We do clean and jerks. We flip tires. We scramble around in pairs through two chippers. And thankfully, we do not have to do the Championship WOD.
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