I'M BACK!!!!

I may be fast again!!!

The last few months have been soooo frustrating! No matter what I did I couldn't seem to be fast. I've trained hard, regularly and, for a while now, without injury or illness. Yet none of this seemed reflected in my race times. The crusher came 2 weeks ago in a small 4 miler. Though I won my age group I ran slightly slower than the Colon Cancer contest of almost 2 months ago. Other runs have given me similar lukewarm results.

Today was the All Star 5K at Bronx Community College. As I ran a 7:13 pace at the recent 4 mile race, I thought a 7 minute pace exactly would be challenging but, perhaps, possible. Certainly it would be on a flat course but the Bronx, of course, is hilly.

I think I have a chance of placing in any non Road Runner event, so I lined up in the front row and went out fairly hard at the start. A small group spurted forward but I stayed with the second pack, enjoying our more reasonable pace as we rolled through about half a mile of fairly steady downhills. Then, up ahead, the street inclined nastily. I mentally willed the lead runners to turn right and onto a level side street, but it didn't work. We had to run that up but it soon evened out and we reached the Grand Concourse.

No split. There wasn't a 1 mile split, at least none that I had seen. Perhaps we hadn't reached it yet, but we were running too long and I felt too fatigued for that to be true. Certainly I didn't want it to be true. I looked at my watch...we'd been running for over 9 minutes. This was confusing for me. Often I run the first mile too fast and, when I see my over speedy split I slow down...frequently too late to avoid paying for it late in the race. But now I hadn't gotten my warning. Was I going too fast? I'd tried to be moderate but I never know. Still, I felt reasonably strong.

We came to a turnaround on the Concourse. Was this the half way point? I kept a steady pace and soon we turned off the Grand Concourse. Was this the 2 mile point? Still no markers. Now I did feel fatigued and my mouth was very dry. If the first mile was mostly downhill wouldn't the finale be mostly up? Logically, yes, but I hoped that logic was off. It wasn't. My watch read just under 14 minutes. If there was just about a mile left then I was right near pace. If not....It didn't seem fair to not know. Still I kept pushing on.

But that effort seemed to slow to a crawl on the hills leading back to campus. About half way up one, a runner went passed. I didn't really care...till I noticed that he had grey hair...perhaps he was in my age group! The course leveled and I saw the gateway to the campus. I thought the race would end just inside. Summoning my last bit of energy I kicked passed him...while hoping that the race really was near the finish. It was! As I pushed to the end, easily out running my competitor, I noticed something surprising...The clock hadn't reached 21 minutes yet! I was way ahead of my hoped for pace. AND, I'd only beaten 21 minutes once before. I strained to do it again...

But I didn't make it!! I came across in 21:01, a time that I was EXREMELY happy with, my second fastest 5K ever.

Walking slowly, I learned that the runner I'd just managed to beat was, indeed, in my age group. In fact a runner right behind him was also in our group. If another age group competitor finished in the small group of runners ahead of me, I could have been knocked right out of an award. And, seeing, the gorgeous trophies on the table nearby, I was very glad that hadn't happened...

...Until I mentioned that to the race director who said that none of the trophies were for the 5K!! The big event of the day was their 10K...a distance they'd been racing for years. This was the first year they'd added the 5K and they had no idea how many people would compete. So they only planned awards for the top 3 male and top 3 female finishers.

What a rip off!! No splits, no trophies, maybe they won't even post our times. RIP OFF!!!

But I don't really care. I know my time and I know that I should have won an award. And I know one other thing as well...

...I'm back!!!!!