First Race of 2005

Just got back from the Mayo Clinic 8k. Ran it in 41 minutes. I tried my new strategy of racing my race instead of beating the clock and did much better than expected. I was talking to a friend of mine who is a professional tri-athlete and I asked him how much faster he had got with his running, biking and swimming. He said he didn't know because he stopped wearing his HRM anymore and stopped looking at splits. He only cares about the time spent and then factors precieved effort.

At first I was skeptical because I always want to know exactly how many miles I have run and now it didn't matter. It was liberating because I would run a little bit longer but not feel confined to running a specific route.

This first test was good. I definately felt the competitive edge coming on, "I can beat that guy" or something like that. But then as the field cleared it became more a matter of breathing, pace, feel and then stay focused on me and not the pretty girl I wanted to run behind (admit it anyone who races thinks that) even if the pace was slower or faster, stay focused on my race and not having to beat the person that passed me and didn't say anything at mile 2 and paying back at mile 4.

I had to take July-December off to rehab a labril tear from 4 o'clock to 8 o'clock in my left shoulder and deal with a calcification growth the size of paintball on the top of the shoulder. So no running, no weight lifting. It was fun for a couple of weeks at least.

Oh yeah back to the run, The Mayo Clinic 8k run for the transplant hospital. In Arizona it can actually get cold if 50 degrees is any indication of cold. This is a small run that is done on a long street outside the hospital in the north end of the Phoenix Metro Valley.

Walking up to the vendor/staging I kept seeing people walking back to the parking area a half mile away with bags of bread. Its pretty normal to see free bread at these races but I was also seeing a lot of people who were not wearing bibs, not used to that. Apparantly most people were signing up or picking up on site.

I had an hour to kill so I went to the port-a-loos and walked right by them, well because I was looking for a line to stand in and couldn't find one. I remember one running telling a piece of advise years ago, "Sonny boy, the first thing you do when you get to the staging area is go to the bathroom then when you get out get back in line and go again."

I walked up to see the start of the 1 mile fun run and there was about 60 people, most of them walking. At just under 6 minutes the first gazelle came in, but what impressed me was the four or five kids under ten years old who did the run under 8:00.

Next the 5k run/walk started, mostly walking and talking older folks.

About 500 people ran the 8k (4.97 mile to us Americans). I went out running my level, which like I said I had the urge to pummel and pound and outrun the fat guy making "moo" noises as the crowd moved off the line or deciding no matter what I was going to beat the obviously-not-a-runner-but-cocky-as-hell-and-dressed-like-Michael-Johnson guy I watched in the staging area for 30 minutes.

As first mile pasted at 8:30 I felt great and banking time. The crowd started thinning out and a small pack developed between two and three which were both around the 8:15 mark and I still felt great. The turn around was at about 2.5 miles and this gave me a chance to see where the two I had pointed out earlier were but I never saw them and I knew they weren't ahead of me.

I began to feel a bit strange at the start of mile 3. I was only at about 75% effort and running 8:20 splits and no one was passing me. I usually start way to fast and get passed by loads of people towards the end. I began to wonder; was I at the back of the fast pack or the head of the slow pack?

As I came into the finish area I felt like I had done a really good job of keeping my head and running a smart race. Me and smart racing are not usually used in the same sentence. I have had frostbite and heat injuries to attest to my determination to finish regardless of physical harm or conditions.

I finished the morning off by meeting my wife Carol, my son Mo and some friends at the zoo for a two hour walk.