Saturday was cool compared to the recent temperatures and I appreciated being able to wear a jacket at the starting line. The race actually has three distances: 1 mile, 2 miles, and 5 miles. At the starting line I was wondering if it would be okay to drop down to one of the other races. The Run for Alex is a memorial for a 15 year old girl who was killed by a speeding car while walking home from soccer practice. Part of the race is a head-to-head challenge of the local schools' track stars in honor of Alex's track record. Being surrounded by teenage boys and girls who looked like stalking lions was intimidating for someone who feels like a blob of jelly right now.
But I took a deep breath and placed myself in the front of the mid-pack group. Shane reminded me not to try to keep up with him and then we were off. I went out trying to focus on treating this like a long run. About a tenth of a mile into the race we made a turn off the main road and started heading uphill into the countryside. I checked my Garmin and I was running sub-9 pace. I pulled back into the 9's and tried not to grit my teeth as several people passed me.
When I say we headed uphill, I mean UP hills. I didn't realize the race was a loop so I just kept telling myself to make it to the turn-around and then it would be all downhill. After about 15 minutes I realized I wasn't seeing the leaders coming back and it must be a loop. I continued tackling the hills and reminding myself to take short, quick strides. It seemed to work because by mile three I hadn't walked yet. Then we encountered what people were referring to as 'the mountain'. It seemed to be straight up and there was no end in sight. I kept up my shorter strides and passed a few people who were walking but about 2/3 of the way up I couldn't keep up the momentum and began to walk. I reached what I thought was the top but it turned out to just be a left turn and then we continued on our journey towards the heavens.
Finally we came to a downhill which began right at a cow pasture. I couldn't help but wonder what the cows thought of the herd of crazy humans running past their field. That helped to lift my spirits after the big hill and I picked up the pace a bit. I checked my Garmin and was shocked to realize that I just might be able to make a sub-10 average pace if I really let loose on the downhills. I pushed as hard as I dared and tried to monitor my breathing because I was sure a blow up was coming after months of laziness.
After that false start to the downhill there was one more uphill to tackle and then it was almost straight down to return to where we'd started. I set my sights on a group of men in front of me and didn't even bother reeling them in. I just let gravity take me and blew by them on a steep downhill. I could hear them complaining about wrecked quads and I wondered to myself how I could still be fit enough to not feel the strain.
At the bottom of the downhill we made a quick left turn and I passed another pair of men running together. I looked for women to catch and saw only one. A girl in hot pink shorts about 100 yards ahead of me. I tried to pick up the pace even more but we were headed slightly uphill again and I didn't have it. I got close to her but she crossed the line about 30 seconds before I did.
My official time was 50:43 for a 10:08 average pace. I never would have imagined I still had that in me. I was 192/241 overall and 18/25 in my age group. Not really an impressive placing but better than I'd hoped for. Shane finished in 38: 32 and took third in his age group. I guess my goal for next year will be to keep up with him. Definitely going to have to add some hills if I want to do that. Oh, and ya know, run too!
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