2 posts tagged “2007”

Since I missed my flight to the Netherlands on Saturday, I thought I'd run the DSE's Conservatory of Flowers 5k on Sunday morning. I had to renew my membership anyway, I hadn't seen any of the runners in a while, I wanted to get one last run in before another week of latency ensued, and I needed to tucker myself out so that I would sleep on the airplane (since I had to go directly from the airport, to the train, to class with no time to adjust).

I drove to the Conservatory (although it is less than a mile from my house) and gave them my membership renewal and the $3 race entry fee (that's why I love these runs--why pay $25 to run 3.2 miles?). Of course, the old faces asked where Jason was (he's the talkative and friendly one). I told them that Sunday was his sleep in day since I'd woken him up early on Saturday to run 10 miles with me.

It was already a warm day, so I took off my long sleeve shirt and stretched out. I didn't feel like doing a warmup jog, so I stood on the grass with a little boy watching a gopher dig a hole (I'd never seen an actual gopher before--they're smaller than I thought).

When it was time, we all stood at the starting line, and I told myself I'd start out towards the back so that I didn't go too fast. Somehow, I ended up in the 3rd row of runners anyway. 3...2...1...we're off and already, I know I'm going faster than I really want to, but it is too late. I go out this fast, I have to commit to this pace, otherwise people are going to pass me and I'm NOT going to be one of those people that blow their wads too early. I hit the first mile in about 8:37 which is much faster than I'd anticipated...and realize that I have another 2.2 miles to go--ugh! The entire time, I can hear my dentist (the guy who told us about this group) talking to someone behind me. I'm huffing and puffing, he's just chatting away! 

Halfway around Stowe Lake, my dentist (shirtless, as always) catches up with me and we chat for a bit. At this point, I'm wondering aloud why I do these things. I hate 5ks. They make me want to puke. I knew this would hurt. I hope this is over soon. Who does this to themselves? Why do I do this again? My dentist reminds me that it is in my genes. He takes me to the 2 mile mark and heads on.

Once I'm back on JFK, I can see two women that had passed me earlier. They don't look like they're running that fast, but they are a few yards ahead of me and they stay there for another half mile. I know they can hear me, cuz I'm huffing, puffing, and hacking (I know, gross).

At this point, I tell myself that if I don't dig deep and beat these women, I don't deserve to go to business school (I play these kinds of weird mental games with myself a lot). A few seconds later, I remind myself to run my own race...screw these women. With 200 meters to go, I say fuck it, I'm going to beat these women and pick it up to a full sprint. As I pass one of the women, I can hear her mutter "FUCK" but I don't hear her coming after me.

I cross the finish line in 27:30!!! Either that is a PR or it is very close.

When I got home, I looked at my spreadsheet and realized it had been almost exactly 2 years since I'd last run a 5k and I was only 10 seconds off my PR. Considering that I ran 10 miles the previous day and how slow I run these days (I am pacing for the SF Marathon training team for a group that is about 1 minute slower than my normal long distance pace) I'm surprised I even got that close. Of course, it hurt quite a bit but once I got my breathing back to normal, I was fine. I'm not sore at all today, even after sitting on a plane for 9.5 hours.

I think when I go back to school, I'll work on getting my 5k faster since it won't take as much time and dedication as a marathon. 

I just signed up for it...here we go again! Hopefully the corrals aren't strictly enforced since J signed me up for a faster pace than I actually am (I was still in class).

My goals:

Primary: beat my previous time (5:13 or something like that)

Secondary: break 5 hours

I think these should be doable since there aren't as many hills as there were in the Nike Women's Marathon last year. However, it could still get hot, or it could simply be a bad running day, in which I'd have to reevaluate my goals on the day of.

Here's to another summer of long runs, funny tan lines, and missing toenails.

Anyone else doing this?