This is to a select group who understand the importance of a favorable showing at the local 5/10k event.
(skip all this garbage if you want to hear about The Actual Run)
With reasonable certainty I figured this would be my final attempt at attending the annual fall festival in my home-town. Unlikely to make a special trip back from AZ just to witness the weighing of a few 1200 lb pumpkins to win a Grant Wood trophy. As such I figured I’d use the festival 5k as a tune-up for Chicago. Mostly to win a fresh pumpkin pie.
I woke up with plenty of time Saturday to sign-up; because preregistering last week would have the wrong thing for me to do. After 15 minutes of tearing apart my room (well, not my room as my little brother who was also home for the weekend, was in it—I had the guest room) looking for my wallet I rummaged through his room as well as the kitchen downstairs. These were the only rooms I was in Friday night when I got home. Nothing. Of course it was too early to wake my folks and ask them and I tried to shake up the brother but I’m pretty sure I heard him roll in very, very late so I knew it’d be noon before he was vertical. Decision: Run bandit. I dressed and went out for a 50 minute warm-up run around town figuring I’d bandit back with the old-guys, strollers and 8 year olds so I no longer needed to be concerned about ‘racing’ the event.
Landed at the starting line about 15 minutes early and ran into one of my old coaches and his wife (one of my old teachers). They’re 30 year RAGBRAIers and were serving as the bike course marshals for the event. I did 10 minutes of jogging in circles to keep warm, lined up behind the strollers and gal w/the dog and waited for the go. Race director said we had a record turnout of 120 (+ one bandit) participants and he apologized for the 20+ who didn’t receive shirts.
The Actual Run
5 k, out and back through the Wapsipinicon State Park. One obstacle, a water feature locally referred to as The Upside Down Bridge. Depth of the water can range from 3 inches to many feet depending on local rains and runoff. Alternative is veering off a few feet and taking the 2 person-wide foot bridge.
Tucked safely behind the strollers I felt my bandit status wouldn’t cause many problems. 15 seconds of that and I realized I really didn’t want to listen to mommy and me stories for the next 50 minutes so I worked up through the group a bit. As we came out of the first bend I was mid-pack and could see Coach Algoe’s yellow jacket up the straight-away. I figured what the heck and gave chase. I left my watch at my folks so as we approached the 1M mark I was interested in how I was sitting. The volunteer at that spot—possibly the school librarian was dutifully looking at her stopwatch and not saying a word as everyone passed by. Complete silence. I nudged the guy next to me to ask for a split and it took 3-4 requests before he finally gave it up. We had a big bend around the golf course ahead and I knew as that straightened out I could see where I was. Across the road was the 2 mile return mark where the volunteer was dutifully shouting out 1.25 mile splits to us. Approaching the Bridge it was clear the best option was to take the narrow foot bridge and by now only a handful of folks were in front so I didn’t feel I’d be a barrier to the paid participants. Around a few more corners and I could see the pumpkin and gourd pile which was the marker for the JPMorgan Chase-like pivot turnaround.
I started feeling really guilty on the return as we needed to cross back over the footbridge. Folks were still coming at us and I needed to crowd a bit to keep up my pace. At the two-mile mark I could see 3-4 ahead of me and I was about to get around another and thought better of it. I backed off and started talking w/a local letting him know I’m not official and if he wants we can work together to get the guy directly in front of us. He did a good job working to close the gap down to 10-15 meters but couldn’t get that extra. It’s an uphill, blind corner finish and at the 3 mile mark I pulled off and slowed to a jog slipping behind the handful of spectators much to their bewilderment, a couple of whom pointed me to the finish chute.
I resisted the temptation to take even a single banana, bottle of water or fresh piece of pumpkin pie at the finish—instead slipped around the crowd, turned my ipod back on and headed up the other park road through the back and ran up on the last ½ dozen or so finishers who were protected by an official DNR truck doing an admirable job as a sweeper.
AniMal