Run for Hospice

Yesterday Kate and I took part in the 11th annual Run for Hospice, a local 5k/10k/run/walk event. Kate registered for the 5k, and I was going to attempt the 10k, because that's basically what I've done every day since the half-marathon. In my mind I was thinking "Well, I ran 14.6 miles, so 6.2 should be a breeze!" But, it's not really like that. The marathon type runs are centered around endurance, but in the shorter ones, people really haul. For instance, the guy that won the men's 10k this year clocked in at 35:44. That's a pace of 5:45 per mile. Yikes! So, I figured my goal would be to do the course in 50 minutes, mostly because that's a nice round number that's right about 8 min/mile.

Now, I've been practicing this for a few weeks, and have done it successfully twice. Everyone says that you run your best on race days, and it's easier to run with other people, yadda yadda so I thought it would be no problem. Unfortunately, I did not meet my goal. I finished the course in 51:36- no matter what the official race results say. They say I finished in 52:06, and here's why: This is my first race to use "Champion Chips," which are a little plastic thingy you tie into your shoelace. It has a little RF chip that allows them to track everyone individually- so everyone's official time is from when they cross the start line until they cross the finish line, as opposed to the starting buzzer until they cross the finish line. This is important when you're standing well behind the line at the gunshot (I understand that at the Marine Corp marathon you can be standing as much as a mile behind the start line).

So anyway, I have my little chip, and the speaker beeps when I cross the start line. I ran the whole race, came into the final stretch, and sprinted to the end where Kate and our other friends were cheering. I cross the finish line, and I hear the speaker beep again. I look at the big timer display and see 51:36. Okay, fine. I turn around to go find Kate and I hear another "Beep!" Apparently I crossed the finish line again, and a race official guy says "Sir, you can't cross the finish line again, that's a penalty." By the way, I was close enough to the end and the race had thinned out enough that there weren't any other runners around at this moment- it's not like I was battling my way through the oncoming race. Anyway, the guy tells me that I have to put the champion chip in this bucket over here. So I walk towards the bucket (drumroll please) and I hear "Beep!" The smartass guy goes "Well, that's another penalty, for a total of 30 seconds." Now, I'm not sure how I was supposed to get the chip back to the bucket without crossing the line again. More importantly, if this whole system is so smart, why can I still get penalties after I've completed the race? Bite me champion chip!

So in truth I finished in 51:36, which would have actually landed me in 54th place, not 56th (out of 78). Still, not my strongest showing. So, where did I go wrong? Well, I usually maintain a little under a 9 min/mile pace for the first 3 miles, get down to an 8 min/mile for mile 4, then do the last mile as fast as I can. Well, I was being friendly and chatting with a guy around mile 4. I was only going to say hi, but he asked where I was from, and I asked where he was from, and I found out that he was new to the area and looking for a house. I had talked with him about the local housing market for a solid 4 minutes before I realized that he was going a lot slower (about 6.5 mph) than I had planned on (about 7.5 mph). So I took off and resumed my plan. Now, I wont go too far into the math, but while we were talking we covered about .43 miles, which I could have covered in 3.5 minutes by myself. So sure, that's only about 30 seconds, but on the short races seconds count. Throw in the fact that I got stuck in a big group of 5k walkers for a few seconds, and then consider that the course ended with a huge-ass hill I hadn't planned on, and I guess I see where the extra time came from.

So, this has given me new goals. I need to run faster! My three guy friends that were there (Mike Cosgrove - #18, his brother Liam - #35, and Sean Roark - #41) all slayed me, so I'd really like to pick up the pace a little bit.

On the other hand, Kate did really well. I won't ruin it all for you, but you can read her account here. Long story short, she set a goal of 35 minutes, and turned in a 33:59.

We continued our race tradition and hit Cici's pizza buffet afterward. All in all, it was a fun race, but I really would have liked to do better. I can't wait to try my next race!