The other thing about a small town-style race is realizing that most runners are there for fun and very few runners are serious about \u201cResults\u201d. My last 5k was October 2012 \u2013 4 years younger, but 21:30 sure looks like a time I can beat, now.\u00a0 I decided I want to break 21 minutes, which I thought meant running around 6:50s\u2026 So my focus was different than the guy I met who hadn\u2019t run since the NYC Marathon 2 years ago\u2026<\/p>\n
As I started to warm up, doing drills and striders, realizing the rain was pretty light and it\u2019s not so cold after all, I looked for and found the guy who had set up the timing equipment to determine what the course was, because none of the volunteers had a clue, and I was likely to be among the leaders of the pack.\u00a0 (THAT\u2019s a new but realistic assessment.)<\/p>\n
Sure enough, the horn goes off (more like, \u201cbleats like a sad, dying goat\u2026\u201d), and I hear Rachel shout out from the parking lot (and give her an overhead can\u2019t-look-at-you-I\u2019m-racing wave), and I\u2019m in the front line with the middle aged Guy in Orange, the Serious Guy With Arm Warmers (SGWAW) and the young Guy With Blond Ponytail. \u00a0And there are virtually NO volunteers on the road.\u00a0 Ponytail says, \u201cwhere do we turn?\u201d\u00a0 Me:\u00a0 \u201cwe go straight.\u201d\u00a0 Ponytail:\u00a0 \u201cYou done this race before?\u201d Me:\u00a0 \u201cNo.\u201d\u00a0 Ponytail:\u00a0 \u201cOh, fuck\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Orange is super relaxed, and OMG fast.\u00a0 He starts peeling away until, by the time we get to the turnaround just shy of Mile 1, he\u2019s literally out of sight.\u00a0 Turns out he\u2019s Welfur Ramon, originally from Ecuador and who lives right there in Yorktown Heights, and he finishes in 19:21 (6:15 min\/miles).\u00a0 The 24-year old Ponytail is an afterthought \u2013he drops back pretty quickly (ah, that\u2019s a satisfaction).\u00a0 But SGWAW is grimly trudging along and accelerating \u2013 he\u2019s the bunny I\u2019m chasing, but I realize once again, I\u2019m running MY race, and I am not going to catch him.\u00a0 I glance up to see the park\u2019s famous lake (\u201cHmmph.\u00a0 Pretty. Back to work.\u201d); the best I can do is not let the gap between us get too large.<\/span><\/p>\n We trot downhill (glorious!) past the water station (for a 5k?\u00a0 No, thank you, outta my way), round the bend, and there\u2019s Mile 2, but that last Mile 3 seems sooooo long, and it\u2019s UPHILL for \u00bc mile, not too steep, but draining, how to keep up the pace?, and I\u2019m closing the gap on SGWAW, but at the crest of the hill he accelerates and I can\u2019t go any faster.\u00a0 I start striding longer \u2013 no, no, that\u2019s how I get injured; so I remember to lift from the hips and push off harder instead.<\/p>\n
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