Sleighbells on the Square 5K Race Report

Tired! Tired I am. The past two weeks have finally caught up to me and I am mentally and physically exhausted. I thought the hour and a half nap I took today would help. It didn't. LOL. Where to start? Where to start? It is my penchant to start off with the alarm, so you guys should be used to that by now... Here we go.

The last race I ran, I had to get up at 4:30 AM in the morning in order to make it to the start line on time. How pleasant it was for me, in my current state of mind, to be able to sleep in until 7 AM. Since I usually get up for work around 6, 6:15 AM, I actually woke up before the alarm. Which was a good thing. Dee Dee wanted to jump in the shower before 7 (course). Being the lazy man I am, I lounged in bed until 7:10, upon which I got up, got dressed, and roused Jimmy from his bed. I peaked out the window and was rewarded with a neighborhood covered in frost. We gathered in the cold den, the three of us, and promptly departed at 7:35 AM.

We arrived at the Marietta square around 8:05 AM. We walked through the square and made it over to the heated tent where we got our race bibs and shirts. I thought this a bit unusual. I was used to getting my shirt after the race. No problemo. The three of us took our shirts back to the car, climbed inside, and tried to stay warm. About 10 minutes before the race started, we left the car and moved to the start line. Jimmy moved up to the front of the pack. Dee Dee and I made our way to the back of the pack. There were about 500 runners for this race.

At 8:31, the race started, and I was off. Almost immediately, I felt like the pace was too slow, so I moved to the inside of edge of the road and bypassed most of the pack. It was important to me to start off the race with Dee Dee, but once the whistle sounded, it was game on. Leaving Marietta square, the first couple of hundred yards was downhill, just the way I like it. After leaving downtown Marietta proper, the route begain a long slow uphill to the hospital. No problem here. I'm trudging along, running at, I think some where around a 8:30 - 9:00 miile pace. Upon reaching the hospital, I missed the first mile marker, so in truth, I have no idea what my pace was. The good news was that we were turning around, and I was excited that I was going to be going downhill again. Right! I should of known, based on my time, that that wasn't quite 1.5 miles. We ran downhill about two blocks then made a right, and I thought, uh oh. We went up a short incline then met the steep hill from hell.

At this point, I decided my first walk break was in order. I walked up the hill, made a left, and came out on the road next to the catholic school from which my daughter graduated. How pleasant. After passing Jessica's old school, I was back on the downhill trail and shortly thereafter hit the 2 mile mark. I actually saw this one and noted the time on my watch: 18:10. Cool, I thought. I'm doing a 9 minute mile pace. I just might be able to come in under 27 minutes. It was about this time my nose began to pour. How sad. I was defeated by my olfactory senses :-)

The rest of the race was uneventful. I spent a lot of time choking. As I crossed back over into downtown Marietta, I took another walk break. I watched my goal of a sub-27 slip away. The last tenth of a mile or so, I finished strong, and I was pleased to come in with a sub-28, almost a two minute improvement over my previous 5K and a PR. Life is good, indeed.

My 15 year old front of the pack son EMBARRASSED me, LOL, by doing a 6.5 minute first mile and comming in with a total time of 23:42. He hasn't run a race in two years. Dee Dee did a wonderful job as well and came in sub-40, which, while wasn't a PR, was still a great job, nicely done.

Saturyday afternoon, I had the distinct pleasure of refing two R3PL Boys teams on the way to Disney for a tournament. I came home. Took a nap. Cooked dinner for the boyz, and now I'm busy catching up on all of your blogs for the weekend.

Tomorrow is the first day since August that I have absolutely nothing to do. Nothing. Hmmmmm. I think a 12 mile bike ride is in order, and lots of cleaning and cooking. I need to make up for some lost time. In the mean time, I think I'll sleep in, get some rest, and get up in the morning and make my family breakfast. Tomorrow is but another day on my path to personal tri-greatness.

Finish strong, rest, and start over, my friends...

Wes

ORN: 3.1 miles, 27:50, race pace, 9 minute miles, walk as needed