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RexRacer
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Joined: 17 Aug 2004
Posts: 814
Location: A pancake house of ineffable crappiness
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 Posted: 03/23/05 - 11:55 Post subject: Fightin' Irish 5k
The Fighting Irish Five K is one of the three races near to my home but I didn’t think that despite knowing the terrain pretty well I would come close to putting in a PR performance. This thought was confirmed when I drove the course with GoGirlGo on Friday night—a hilly mess it was, with more ups than downs.
Nevertheless, there were other reasons to look forward to it—It was the first race I’d done with Go in two years, it was supporting a local school that gives educational opportunities to some of Philadelphia’s neediest kids, and it was a fitting culmination to my week of Irish culture immersion. The downside was writing a check to the Notre Dame Alumni Association, but all charity comes with some strings, I suppose!
We got to the race and I was surprised how many people were there. It has definitely grown in its three years to become a pretty big event. I was also pleased to see the number of portapotties available (note to you folks who did the Leprechaun Run last Saturday where el Kid and I almost missed the start waiting in line).
Anyway, I kissed Go goodbye and wished her good luck as I wanted to start a bit ahead of her. Also, since we only had one working portable music player I had magnanimously given it to my spouse, so I would be running this race without tunes. What a mistake! God, we sound like a herd of stampeding buffalo out there!! Totally disconcerting.
The first mile started flat and then went down, down, down quickly into a deep hollow, which as we all know can only be followed by up, up, up. And up it was, about .6 of the first mile was a steep incline. When I got to the marker I was shocked to see that I ran it in 8:09, one of my fastest miles ever and mostly uphill to boot.
Pacing along with my red-ponytailed running neighbor was proving good. I usually pick a person to pace to who is out of my league and I end up getting burned down the homestretch, but we were running side by side most of the second mile, which I did in 8:44, also quite fast for me. I realized that I was on pace to literally stomp my old 5K PR despite the hilly nature of this course.
Then the pain started. Not a side stitch but more right under my sternum, like my stomach muscles were painfully contracting. I slowed down but forced my self to keep running. Then kinda shuffling, but I wouldn’t stop. I knew it was getting bad when the people in the funny outfits started passing me, then the people with the weird breathing more fit to Lamaze childbirth than a road race. Who was next the 80+ runners and the speed walkers?!
Luckily, the cramping subsided as quickly as it came on with about .3 to go and I regained my earlier pace. I crossed the line in 26:56, a distance PR by 8 seconds. But more importantly I learned out there what I was capable of and turned in one of the best races of my life on a pretty formidable course. My training and racing schedule (at least one per month this year) are starting to show some dividends and I am psyched, ‘cause the season’s just starting.
Next I’ll be focusing on adding a little more distance with the Race for Independence 10K and then training for my first Broad Street Run in early May.
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