Fantastic disaster! (original) (raw)

If something can go wrong, it will!

So, I had some people over to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, and the last people left at 3:30am. I got to bed, slept for 3 hours and got up at 6:45 to get to my 10k race. First mistake was parking at the finish and taking the bus up. The bus was late, although I thought it would be fine, but I didn't expect so many people would be taing it that early in the morning. Then bus driver dude said he wasn't going to stop at all the stops after detouring for the race. Since I had my friend's kit, I ran most of the way from Avenue road to the starbucks where I said we'd meet. Nobody was there, and the race had long since gone. Technically, I was the last person over the starting line. I had to duck under the starting line banner. When I crossed the mat, my chip made a beep. Since I had already run about a kilometer, I sort of ran an 11k race. I found out that my official time was 1:14. The gun time was the same as my chip time, which means my chip didn't work at the start. Luckily I had my watch and timed it.

It took me until St Clair to catch up to the back of the pack. I had to stop 45 seconds for traffic before then, since officers had allowed trafic to start going again. The great thing about being the very last to start the race, is that you spend the WHOLE RACE passing people. It was funny being the only one to pass this one band (they were still playing when I got to the first one) and I did some air guitar and they all loved it. The guy with the shakers said "yeah baby!!!" I noticed there were some people doing run/walks and people on the sidelines would announce the times to run for a bit. At one of these, a guy told me to "slow down, your pace is too high" and as I whipped by another later on, I heard a girl say "holy shit, look at that guy" and then a guy after that said "Look at that guy go! YOU'RE DOING GREAT ORANGE!!! Whoa!!!" I was wearing my neon-orange Nike shirt, If you saw me, I was wizzing buy most people, even at the end of the race when I got my second kick.

According to my watch, and taking away the time spent standing waiting for the light which shows up on my run graph, I managed to do the 10k 51:14, exatcly 1 minute longer than my personal best. My goal was to run the race with very little sleep, beers and natchos and chili consumed, and trying to beat my personal best under these conditions. I think I would have acheived that had I driven to the start rather than take the bus and run to the start. Then again, time would have been lost weaving around people in the crowded start, which was a non-issue for me this time around. Great warm up, sure, but it probably didn't help my time. As I passed each km marker, I looked at my watch, and I was managing 5 minute kilometers. So the entire race, I was pretty happy with my pace. It didn't really diviate or get slower, although I hoped the last bit would be faster, but it wasn't.

Because of my lack of sleep, I couldn't think straight as things were going. I should have told the few runners also waiting for the bus if they'd like to grab a cab with me. I could have ran back to my car and driven up as well. Hindsight is 20/20. I felt bad my buddy Steve didn't get his chip time, but he ran with a girl who had hers and the started and finished together, so he sort of has a time.

What I've learned is, make sure you get your friend's kit to them before the race. Park at the start and don't depend on the TTC. They are not the better way, at least on Sundays. Don't play enthusiastic air guitar while running, it wreaks havoc on your shins. Don't throw a party the night before a race. Although this was an experiment, based on previous 10k times, this was a slower 10k. Considering it's mostly downhill, it should be fast. However, I had to ignore my shins and quads which took more of a beating than my usual flat 10k. I know I could keep the same pace if it was flatter and go a bit faster since my shins and quads wouldn't give out as early. I'm going to try for a 4.5 minute km next 10k that I do. If I get my rest and eat and drink properly the night before the race, I should be able to do it.