Eat Drink Run Woman

Although I’ve run several races during my running career, the 5K distance is not one I gravitate toward. Sure, I’ve run the St. Patty’s Day dash several times, but it’s not officially a 5K (lately they bill it as “almost 3 1/2 miles” but I think the distance changes over the years). And of course one of my favorite runs — the outside loop of Greenlake — is basically a 5K at 3.2 miles. But a TRUE 5K? Just hasn’t happened. In fact, in looking through my race portfolio, I’ve found just a couple: Fremont in 1996, and possibly my very first race, the Teddy Bear Run in 1990.

Given my insane desire to qualify for Boston some day, I’ve decided to take baby steps and set new personal bests for certain runs. I knocked off a few of my Greenlake PBs a couple of weeks ago, but due to the heat I was unsuccessful in my attempt at a new PB for the half. So my next target was the 5K, and once again, I chose Fremont.

Fremont, which bills itself as the “Center of the Universe,” is one of the quirkier neighborhoods in Seattle (where else would you find a statue of Lenin and a troll under the bridge?) and the 5K truly highlights its eccentricities. The race starts with a briefcase relay — 5-person teams dressed from the waist up in regular business attire carrying a briefcase (each member runs a 1K). The fun run starts immediately after.

Because it’s been 11 years since I ran the race, I don’t factor in that year’s finish time into my list of PBs (that period was my first running career; I’m now in my second). Instead, I used my fastest training run time to determine my goal for this year’s race: 25 min., 45 seconds (roughly 8:19/mile; my PB in training has been 8:25/mile).

After picking up our t-shirts and bib numbers, my darling and I decided to get a bite to eat, along with a frosty beverage. We didn’t want to get too full, so we shared a BLT sandwich (although we both quaffed a brew). The weather was perfect — sunny, but with a tad of cloud cover to keep things cooler.

After changing into our running togs we headed back down to the start; we contemplated having yet another frosty beverage (the beer garden opened at 6 p.m.; our race started at 7), but decided to wait until afterwards. We lined up at the 8 1/2 minute pace line just behind Wonder Woman and a Hooters girl. I then spied one of the managers from my grocery store several feet ahead of me, and of course had to talk smack: “You’re going DOWN Joel! I’m going to kick your BUTT!”

A couple of minutes later the gun went off and we started running — HARD. I glanced at Garmin to see we were at a 7 3/4 minute/mile pace; whew! But I was caught up in the crowd and didn’t feel like slowing down. Besides, I knew there was a gradual, yet long incline coming up and I wanted the momentum to carry me along. However, about halfway up the hill I got the biggest side stitch I’ve ever had in my life. RASSENFRASSEN! I slowed a bit but figured I could breath it out. Garmin then beeped at me to say its batteries were low. Double RASSENFRASSEN! Fortunately my darling had his on so he could keep us on pace.

Things were pretty rough for the first half of the race as my side stitch just didn’t want to go away. My darling could see the pain on my face and knew better than to try to get me to pick up the pace. But soon after passing the halfway mark the stitch finally went away and I sped up (although by now my darling had a bit of a stitch. Perhaps beer isn’t the best pre-race beverage!). With about a half mile to go I gleefully passed Joel. The race ended on a small incline, but I somehow managed to keep the pace. We finished in 25 minutes, 49 seconds; hooray! (Okay, so it’s 4 seconds from my goal, but it was still a personal best!) After hitting the free goodie table for water, bananas and apples we headed to the beer garden for a celebratory drink.

However, my elation over hitting a PB was short-lived as the pain in my left hamstring started acting up. By Saturday morning I was hobbling around, getting ready for a buffet dinner for a client (so much for being able to nurse my hamstring on the couch). Yesterday it seemed to have improved, so I attempted a shorter run at a really slow pace (I was scheduled to run 8 miles, but kept it at 5). Although it was fine during the run, today it’s once again tender. Given I’ll be running 15 miles this Sunday with a new blogging friend, I’m going to curtail running this week in favor of some cross training.