Feel like I'm just going in circles

July 22, 2009

This evening saw the annual running of the DCRRC Steve Thompson Memorial 8K. This year it was run at Ft. Hunt Park. Ft. Hunt is just about 1 1/4 miles around so its well suited for an 8K or 5 mile race. However, it does make for a pretty boring race, particularly if you are running by yourself.

I got to the park a little early...unusual for me...which allowed me to sign in casually and also squeeze in a nature break. I even went back to the car and did some reading. It was a hot, humid evening and I wanted to stay as cool as I could for as long as I could.

The park rangers were once again out in force against the club...this time with 2 rangers watching our every move. From my vantage point though, there were no incidents this time.

When we took off I felt pretty good. I felt like I was running slow and comfortably but I still pulled away from Sharyn Gordon and I was nipping on the heels of Blair Jones. My heart rate monitor confirms this as my heart rate was only 138 after 10 minutes of running. But thats when I started to run into trouble. Even though my heart rate wa relatively low, I was tiring. I stopped for a walk break after about 1.1 miles and Sharyn went speeding by, putting me in last place. I tried to stay close to her but by shortly after the 2K water stop she was ahead by 100 yards and not to be seen again. I was already being passed by the leaders who were a lap ahead of me. A few would ultimately pass me twice.

I want to give a shout out here to Karsten Brown and Jay Wind. When we run on out and back courses I always try to cheer on the other runners I know as they pass me on their return leg. Few offer any response, which I understand as they are concentrating on their race and they are suffering at that point. But both Karsten and Jay gave ME encouragement today as they came up from behind me. That was particulalrly impressive for Karsten as he was in a race for the lead. I thank them both. There were also a couple of other runners that shouted there encouragement to me as they passed and even a couple that asked if I was OK. I must have looked pretty bad!

Over the next few laps I really began to struggle. I knew my heart was OK (it didn't break 150 until the finish line) but I felt like crap. I had to walk...A LOT. It looks like I took 13 walk breaks over the course of the race. As I completed the 3rd lap I was so worried about my time I was afraid that I meet be lapped by Sharyn and Blair!

I also had something else to be concerned about...the club had to shut down the race by 8:10. The race started at about 7:03 so I had 57 minutes to get in while the clock was still on. I was on pace to come in ahead of that time throughout the race by I had didnt have a lot of room for error. If I really struggled during that last lap I was going to be in trouble.

Fortunately, things didnt get any worse during that last lap. They also didnt get any better but I felt just good enough to run pretty hard the last 1/3 of a mile. One of the blessings of being so slow is when you finish you run by the other finishers that are waiting for the awards ceremony. Most cheer you on as you finish. Its a little embarassing but its nice too. In this race I even had the race director come out and run the last couple hundred yards with me, which was very nice of him. I finished with a time of 1 hour, 4 minutes and 14 seconds. I was last but I finished in time. And surprisingly, it was actually 24 seconds faster than my best 8K time of the year...the Georgetown 8K held exactly 1 month earlier.

Joe Racine won the race with a time of 27:35. Karsten wasnt far behind with a time of 27:54. Ted poulos finished 5th with a time of 30:10. Maggie Infeld was the top woman (and 4th overall!) with a time of 28:55. She gave the top guys a run for the money.

Other notable finishers were
Jay Wind 34:12
Kirk Gordon 37:26
Jon Palks 41:03
Bob Gurtler 50:28
Sharyn Gordon 56:50
Blair Jones 57:21
Shonda Hightower 61:50

So I wasn't too far behind the runner in front of me, which makes me a feel a little better, even though I finished 77th out of 77 runners. There was a nice spread at the awards ceremony and I helped myself to some cookies, pretzels, and water.

My Garmin stats were
Avg heart rate 135bpm
Max heart rate 151 bpm
calories burned 508
max speed 7.3 mph (end of race)

This was my 36th race of the year and 413th career race.