It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
When I left for the Prostate Race the temperature was in the low 60s. Not so bad and not surprising either. I'd studied the hour by hour temperature predictions on Accuweather's web site the night before and this is what they predicted. Hey, I should be able to run fine in this kind of weather.
It was still nice and pleasant when I did my prerace warmup. When I finished I was absolutely soaked. That didn't bode well at all. Maybe it was going to be EXACTLY as bad as I had thought.
The race started and I struggled to not run too fast on the first mile. I almost always do that...struggle to not run too fast, that is. And I almost never succeed. That's why I always begin to hate racing as I spend the last few miles slowing down and vowing never to race again.
Okay, I'm exaggerating. But not by much.
But this time I did run the first mile slower. I picked it up a bit for mile 2 and stayed strong in the third. This was good. Mile 3 on this particular course is mostly uphill and usually kills me. Partly because I'd run too fast early on. Not this time. But, by mile 4, the heat and humidity did get me. Apparently, it WAS as bad as I thought it would be. I struggled to the finish and got in at 35:50.
35:50? Okay! I beat all the goal times I'd thought were doable the night before. Okay! Not so bad!
And then it was off to the softball game. I arrived after missing just a half inning and everyone was impressed by how exhausted I looked and by how well I'd done in the race. They knew I'd done well because, from our field, we could see the runners at about a quarter mile from the finish.
"Hey," said 1 of the players. "There are a lot of people still running."
"Lots," I agreed."
"And you finished 20 minutes ago?"
"About."
"You must be fast! How old are you again, Mikey?"
So now the players on my team knew that I was fast but I think it still didn't fully register with them. They kept saying I'd run a 5K and I kept telling them it was a 5 miler. Apparently they didn't understand that I wouldn't exactly be pleased with a 35:50 for 5K. And I wouldn't tell anybody about it, either!
In the third inning, I came up for my first at bat. We lead by a run and we had runners on first and second with nobody out. It was a crucial situation. One of the guys yelled to the umpire: "Don't make any bad calls on him, Blue. He just raced a 5K!"
"It was FIVE MILES," I yelled back as the pitcher threw to the plate. I swung and drove it down the left field line. A runner scored and I raced into second with a double.
No, not so bad at all!!!
2 comments:
hey mike, sub 36 for 5 miles in central park on a humid day, that's great! It's refreshing reading a runner's impending thoughts of doom before a race.. Realistic.. Since I do so much track now (twice a week), I usually can predict exactly how I'll race, so eventhough I have a trepidation about maintaining the effort I'll need to to reach those goals, I have the confidence from the track to know I can in fact reach them.. I don't know if you are doing track, but if so, you should lean more on those results to help take off some of the pre-race anxiety.. If you don't mind my input..
Hi, Tamar. I don't mind your input at all! Thoughts of doom and awful expectations seem to coexist with a sense of excitement and hopefulness. Sometimes my track work (particularly with 400s) do predict my race times, but for this race my track times weren't that good and then the weather was a wild card.
Two times a week at the track? That's formidable. I'd love to hear about your track workouts. Best, Mike
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