Peggy came with me to lend me some moral support and we arrived a bit before 10:00. We brought a folding chair and a blanket and relaxed on the grass in front of the bandstand while waiting for the race to start. As the Oklahoma resident members of our blog know, Saturday was a very hot day (in a string of hot days) with a high of about 103. As we left the house around 9:30 to head to the Fairgrounds it was still around 97-98 degrees. As we waited for the race time to roll around I decided I should go ahead and run shirtless because of the heat and humidity, and that's pretty much how I've been running all summer anyway.
Around 10:40 Jared (of Subway commercial fame) got on stage and said all the runners needed to head to the starting area. I made one last bathroom pitstop then headed that way. There was a huge crowd and I wandered in and out of it looking for any familiar faces (didn't spot any). A few people were jogging up and down the road adjacent to the starting area and I joined them, jogging back and forth a couple of times to get loosened up.
As I wandered thru the crowd, I got fairly near the starting line a couple of times, but ultimately found myself 60 or 70 yards away from it when the race was about to start and the crowd tightened up significantly so I was pretty much stuck there. Suddenly the starting gun went off but nothing happened where I was for a few seconds. Then slowly, the crowd around me began to surge toward the starting line. We finally broke into a slow trot 20 or so feet from the start.
As we passed the start, the pace picked up a bit, but it was definitely quite a bit slower than I needed to be running to meet my goal time for the race. My fairly conservative goal was to break 27 minutes which requires running a bit under 9 minute miles. So I began trying to weave my way thru the big crowd around me to get some clear room around me, or at least work my way into a faster crowd.
I finally worked my way to the side and was able to get by the big crowd I had been trapped in and get some room to find my own speed. I glanced down at my GPS watch to check my paced and was alarmed to see it read a pace of about 7:35/mile...way to fast for this point in the race. My plan was to run the first mile between an 8:30 to 9 minute pace, then pick it up on the second mile to a bit under an 8:30 pace and finally run the last 1.1 mile at around an 8 minute pace. I remembered Ross warning me that in a race like this, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement and the other runners and start off too fast, wearing yourself out before you finish the first mile.
I slowed my pace down, but still found myself going a bit faster than my plan, averaging near an 8:30 pace for the first mile. I finished the first mile and picked up the pace slightly. To my surprise, there was a water station a bit before the halfway point...I didn't think they'd have any since a 5K is such a short race. Never the less, I was happy to see it as I was very hot by now and a slug of water sounded pretty good. I grabbed one from a volunteer as I ran past and managed to choke down two or three swallows while still running along. Looked at my GPS watch and saw I had slowed down to almost a 9:30 pace during that water "break" and got a bit alarmed. So I quickly picked the pace back up. As I approached the two-mile mark I mentally assessed things, deciding I still felt pretty good and felt I could continue with my plan to run the last mile at around an 8 minute pace.
When I passed two miles, I consciously picked my pace up even more, and continued passing people (as I had been doing for the entire race). At around 2 and 1/3 mile I found myself behind a couple of young girls (probably high school age). I was going to work my way around them, but they were moving along at a pretty good clip and maintaining a steady pace (and we were around my goal 8-minute pace) so I decided to just follow them along for a while. By this time I was starting to feel the exertion and found myself checking my watch frequently to see how far we had left.
The course had gone off the fairgrounds in the last mile and ran on May Avenue in a lane they had blocked off with traffic cones. Finally when my watch read that we had gone 2.97 miles I thought it was time to turn it on and give what kick I had left. I sped up and passed the two girls I had been following, as the course turned back into the fairgrounds. And, as you entered the fairgrounds you could see the finish line up ahead. At this point I was moving at a pretty good clip (I hit a 6:05 pace according to my GPS), but with about 100 yards left one of the young girls I had been following and passed went shooting by me!
Finally, I crossed the finish line, and almost immediately spotted Peggy in the crowd lining the finish. She had our camera and had hoped to take a picture as I crossed, but wasn't able to get it taken. She came over to congratulate me though and we walked along to where volunteers were passing out water bottles, when I remembered to stop my GPS watch...it read 26:14 when I stopped it, so I was excited to realize I had probably broke the 26 minute mark, since it had been at least 15 or 20 seconds after I finished before I stopped the watch.
We went back to the bandstand where they were to announce the winners at 11:45. As we waited I bumped into the manager of the OK Runner store in Edmond where I drop in once a month or so. I guess he recognized me because he stopped and asked me how I did. I told him I had beat my goal and was very happy with my performance. He said that's great and continued on. I told Peggy I'd bet he ran it in under 20 minutes. Then when they announced the overall winner--it turned out, it was him! His time was 15:44, which boggles my mind. Less than 5:15/mile!
They finally began posting results near midnite but I was disappointed to see that the times they were posting were from the starting gun, not the individual chip times. My starting gun time was 26:55, but I was still pretty sure I had broken the 26 minute mark. I had to wait until the next day to check my results on the internet and sure enough, my chip time was 25:57! So I had broken 26 minutes (barely!).
I finished 177th out of over 1100 finishers, and 14th out of 63 in the 50-54 age group (12th among men in that age group). I was quite pleased with myself and my performance and enjoyed the whole experience immensely. I plan on running it again next year and encourage the other Oklahoma runners to consider it too.
 |
| Me, about 45 minutes before the race start. |
 |
| Me, gasping for breath an hour and 15 minutes later. |
You're pretty awesome Jay!
ReplyDelete