Saturday, February 27, 2010

A Series of (un)Fortunate Events

Rise and shine runners, we are gonna sneak in a little 5k this morning to see where our fitness level is going into the spring race season.



This is the 4th year they have held this race and the start is 1/2 a mile from my house. Cheap entry fee and a small field mixed between the 5 and 10k made this race very appealing to me.

I woke up and weather.com told me it was a chilly 32 degrees outside, the 5 minute dog walk confimred that indeed it was cold outside! Quick run down of available running clothes left me with the decision of tights, long sleeve under armour, gloves and skully for today's race.

I ate a quick Clif Bar and hopped on my bike to ride to the start and get a warm up jog. As I looked around I noticed most of the guys that win my age bracket were wearing 10k numbers. SAHWEET, maybe I can place in my age group...a win is a win.

After doing a few strides I headed over to the start.

The 5 & 10k course is pretty much the same, we go out around the park and down Bull st. The 10k'ers are to turn left onto Washington Ave. and head to Daffin Park, while the 5ker's turn around and come back. Easy enough.

Listened to a few announcements and we were off!

The pack quickly thinned out and I watched the fast snails disappear down the road. Within in the first 400 meters I was into a comfortable stride and had planned on settling into a comfortable(mostly) 8 minute pace.

I hit the first mile marker at 7:58. I was pretty happy with this and my goal was gonna be to drop about 5 seconds off of that pace in the 2nd mile.

"The lead 5k'ers should be coming back soon, I wonder how far back I am...I can see the turn... why is it that nobody is coming back?"

EVERYBODY is turning left.

I get to Washington Ave. and the water ladies are telling us to keep going.

"Hmmm, that's wierd, Garmmy is telling me we are at 1.75 miles. I should be going back by now?!?!1!"

I can see the 2 mile marker for the 10k in the near distance. There are two cops holding traffic at the next intersection. There is a 5k'er 100 yards in front of me who is equally concerned. I hear him ask the cop where is the turn around for the 5k. He says, "keep going down the road it is up ahead." The other cop, pointing in the opposite direction says, "No man, the turn around was way back there!" FML!

I mutter a few choice words under my breath and hang a hard U turn at the intersection and hear the foot steps of my equally confused and slighty distraught 5k friend. I glance at my Garmmy and see that I have covered almost 2 miles...Simple math says it will take longer than 1.1 miles to get back.

As he pulls up beside me I ask, "How much further do you think we went than the actual turn around?" After thinking about it for a moment he responds, "Too far!"

We are back on Bull st. heading to the park and I see on the road marked in white tape, "5K TURN"...AND there is nobody standing there....

Then I hear from the runners on the other side of the road that are still heading out, "Good job, you are in 2nd and 3rd place!"

WHAT???

as I watch my running companion pull away I think to myself, "I am in 3rd place...I can hold onto this for another mile..."

As my Garmmy beeps to mark mile 3, I look and see 24:20 on the display. LOL, there goes my chance of breaking 25 minutes today.

I run this route enough to know I have about 1/2 mile left. I hear the faint sound of a runner behind me.

Don't look back, just keep pushing forward.

Into the park, 1/4 mile to go... Relax and Move

As I go around the fountain, I take this chance to look back and see I have a 100 yards on the next guy. I have this!

Push through the finish, don't let up!

28:20
3.54 miles
8:02 average pace

3rd Place Overall!

Talking to the two guys that finished ahead we all agree that something went wrong big time....During the award ceremony the MC took credit for the failure stating he was supposed to be the guy at the turn around but he was dropping of other volunteers further along in the course and didn't make it back in time...

I know for a fact several much faster 5k runners just continued on and completed the enitre 10k course.

A win is a win, right?



The award was a "Savannah Gray" Brick with a plaque on it. Fitting seeing as how this race was for the Historic Savannah Foundation.

Afterwards, I ran into several old college friends, Tom & Trang Black. We caught up on old times and talked about future runs. All in all it was a great morning...

One foot in front of the other, one step at a time!

18 comments:

Tyly said...

Congrats on an awesome finish!!! A win is a win! :)

Julie said...

Wow, awesome job!! Congrats on taking third...that is exciting and you should be proud of yourself:)

Carolina John said...

sweet! 3rd place overall? Well done snail. I can't believe you're pulling an 8 minute pace the whole way either. Geez that's fast.

San said...

Wohoo, third place!!!! Congrats to you. How exciting. And nice time too.

'cue confetti'?! *snicker* never heard that term before. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your weekend. You rock!

RockStarTri said...

Hardware is hardware. Well done and well deserverd.

Psyche said...

Very unfortunate they didn't have the race manned very well, but oh so sweet to win!! I had to do a 5K time trial BY MYSELF today, and I'm pretty sure I'd of rather been in your race, half mile long or not..

P.S. You did a great job of really racing it at the end. A race to be proud of:)

ha ha..the verification word was "quitela". Not today...

Anne said...

I did not expect this tale of race volunteering gone wrong to have such a happy ending. Wow, I think you take top prize among bloggers who raced today. Remind me to sidle up next to you next time I want to finish strong on a course that's all wrong.

Anonymous said...

Hey! I finally found your blog after seeing your name pop up in comments in other blogs. Congrats on the strong finish despite the lack of proper direction/good signage!

MCM Mama said...

Woohoo! Way to place in a slightly too long 5k!

Turbo Photographs said...

Good for you!!!!!! Congrats :)

Anonymous said...

Way to go!!!! At first I thought you'd have to find those incompetent race volunteers and give 'em hell, but THIRD PLACE overall? Niiice...

And when you're consistently running 8:00 minute miles it's time to retire the "snail". You can still pick a slimy animal if you want, but select a much faster one. Maybe "Georgia Salamander" would be more apt.

joyRuN said...

Well, congratulations! I agree with LooMoo - all these speedy peeps with a "snail" or "turtle" handle need to relinquish those titles to the more deserving slowpokes.

Like me.

JoySnail. I kinda like that ;)

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

ZOMG, I am right underneath toyBuNz and I can see right up her dress and lemme tell you ... "Snail" doesn't do justice to what she's got under there!1! Word on the street was she was swinging some major pipe under "her" skirt, but ... Man! She could be a professional porn star!

But, uh, where was I? O yeah! Congrats on the AG win and the speedy 5k+.

Word has it you also handed Cletus his @$$ in a race a while back. Congrats on that, too.

Now unlike joyRuN, that guy's packing a snail.

Al's CL Reviews said...

Great job! Even with the extra run!

The Boring Runner said...

THAT IS AWESOME!! I'm finally getting caught up with work, blogs, and life and made it to your post.

I don't care how many people ran, finishing 3rd is AMAZING. And a brick!? How cool is that for a finisher's prize? And, if someone doesn't think that it is a cool prize, you can always just bonk them on the head with it.

Unknown said...

Finally getting around to commenting on this...I was SO confused running this 5K with no garmin/watch/other means of having some kind of clue how far or long I had been running. When I saw the 2nd 2 mile marker I was like, you've gotta be kidding me!

SteveQ said...

Ahh, the unexpected award, the sweetest one of all!

Walt said...

Congrats on your 5.8k race. Your only responsibility is to show up at the line. Great pace. Sounds like you still would have finished in the same place even if the turnaround was pointed out.