A cold race!

Let me preface this by saying 28 is cold. It’s cold to go outside and check the mail, but it is really cold to stand around for an hour waiting for a race to start. I know there are lots of places that regularly get much colder and those residents don’t think 28 is cold. Let me say that I have lived most of my life in Houston, Texas; my blood is as thin as water, and to me that is very cold. Also, I don’t know why anyone would want to live in a place that gets that cold on a regular basis!

Months ago, when the weather was much warmer, I convinced my wife to sign up for the kid’s race and to take a 3 year old with her. We thought it would be fun, and cute, and he would get a big kick out of finishing the race with all the people cheering. We knew he would love the medal he got at the end. We never expected the weather to turn like it did!

Yes, I had a race yesterday in 28 degree weather. That’s what the car said when we turned off the engine and forced ourselves to crawl outside and get ready. Before I relate my boring race, I should tell you about Kelli and Dillon. They stood around for 45 minutes in that cold weather to see me start my race. They then had 15 minutes to walk 2 blocks for the kid’s race. There were a couple of middle school kids there, but they thought it would be longer than 1K (probably much less than that really). They were nice and said they would run the kids run so Dillon wouldn’t be alone. That’s right, all the sane parents kept their kids at home in the warmth. Dillon was the only little kid in the race. Before the start of the race, Dillon announced that he was cold and ready to go home. He agreed that they couldn’t leave without me, but he wasn’t running any stupid race. About that time the race started: the bigger kids took off, and Dillon sat down, refusing to continue. Poor Kelli carried him, tried pulling him, and used every trick she had trying to get him going. Finally when she said she was going to beat him he jumped up and took off. I wish I had been there to see the grin on his face with all the people cheering for him. It was the best part of the day, and I missed it!

My race was much less entertaining. There were 150 people registered, but I bet less than 50 showed up. I was one step from the starting line, I figured I wouldn’t have to jockey much for space once we started. As the starter counted down, some guy came from behind me and stood right in front of me. Whatever! Did I mention that it was cold? Normally I don’t wear anything on my head as I get pretty hot. Being this cold I figured I needed something and scrounged up a tubular scarf I folded over and was able to pull over my ears. It worked great for about a mile and a half, until I started to get hot. I looped it over my arm, but it was bulky and distracting. I was trying to figure out some way to get rid of it without littering up the road. Half a mile down the road I saw a young lady walking her dog and threw it to her. I’m not sure what she did with it (she was gone by the time I came back by), but at least I didn’t feel like I was littering.

The course itself was pretty flat with some false flats and maybe and underpass or two, basically an out and back. When I made the turn at the 3.5 mile mark, the wind hit me in the face, and it was cold. I actually wished I hadn’t thrown away that scarf! I had a goal time, less than 8 minute/mile pace. I started off faster than I normally would have so I could make it. I was already tired at the turnaround, and the wind only made it worse. It was then that I realized if it was hurting me, it would be hurting everyone else and I tried to pick up the pace just a bit. There weren’t a lot of people in front of me, but I started running them down. We were fairly spaced out, and I didn’t think I would catch anyone, but the wind and false flats did their job. Catching them took a while, but as I passed each one it was like they just gave up. The end was getting close and I had one last fellow in sight. As we hit the mark for the last 2/10 of a mile he found another gear and I was unable to close the gap.

Overall I’m very happy with my time. I obtained my goal, and had run about as hard as I could. This wasn’t my target distance, and I don’t feel like I’ve been training for it. If I really wanted to do well in a 10K I would do some different training. As it is, this is more like a training run for my longer races. I do enjoy this distance though, so maybe another year I can work on them.

Thanks for listening!