Tears of Tim

OK, stay with me on this. The title was a bit of a stretch. Tears of Tim is a take-off on Tears of Jupiter. Tears of Jupiter was sung by Train. A train has a caboose. Which leads me to the Clifton Caboose 5K, held on May 30.

I have run this race a few times before. In fact, one year I ran the 1 mile race that preceeds the 5K, as well as the 5K itself. I'm no where near in good enough shape to try for the double (as you'll see in my next post!) so I opted for just the 5K this year.

This is an evening race and like most evening races this time of year it was rather warm. But it was bearable. It's an out and back course with a pretty decent uphill leading to the turnaround. I tried to save myself for the hill and then I hoped I could could kind of roll downhill for the return.

This is a pretty big local race held on a 2 lane road, meaning the beginning of the race is pretty crowded and with children. I was able to clear most of them within a minute or two and I focused on keeping a slow even pace. Unfortunately, my watch died 5 minutes into the race so I didn't have any data to help me get through the race other than just how I felt.

I was doing OK for the first 1 1/4 miles but really struggled going up the hill I mentioned earlier. As always, it was bigger than I remembered. As I was climbing the hill someone who had made the turn and was heading down the hill shouted over in my direction something to the effect of " Way to go, Mom to be". Now I know I have a belly. I even know I have a small pair of man boobs. But I really don't think I look like a preganant woman so I looked around. Sure enough, passing me on my left was a couple and the woman was about 5 months pregnant.

Now I know she could have been in great shape before the pregnancy and I know that this is about my adventures as a slow runner but I was not going to be beaten by a woman carrying a child in their belly! I'm sorry. It just wasn't going to happen! So once I got to the water stop immediately after the turnaround I picked up the pace. I passed her pretty quickly but that wasn't enough. I knew that I tire late in races so I needed a cushion and this hill was the place to build it. I ran at a pretty good clip for about 1/2 mile before having to stop to walk. I was starting to get a side stitch but I pushed through it for the most part. I passed a gentleman around here and I decided I wouldn't let anyone pass me for the rest of the race. So, for the rest of the race I kept an ear out behind me for footsteps. If anyone got close I would push the pace forward. It worked as I ran a pretty big negative split (19:30/18:25) for a 37:55. I finished 18th out of 20 in my 10 year age group. I wish I had the heart monitor working for this race as I think it would probably show some big numbers.

After the race I went to the festival and enjoyed a free beer and a few pretzels. The ground was damp though so I didnt want to sit on the grass. So I only stayed long enough to drink my beer before heading home for a nice shower.