Running, part 3: The Race

That brings us to Race Day, which was this Thursday, June 6. It was fortunately not 96 degrees. It was barely 70, and because the course was a path along the Charles River, it was even cooler there. The fifteen IEc-ers that were running made our way down to the race site plenty early to register, warm up, stretch, and take numerous "before" photos.

Before the race.

The race started just after 7:00, and we were off! I ran with Kelley, a former IEc-er who still joins us for IEc sporting events. We also stuck close to Rachel and Henry, the only two principals running, and Leah, who started training from just about scratch along with me in May. Although we weren't purposely trying to run as a group, we ended up all coming in within 40 seconds of each other. We had one other IEc-er running with us most of the way, but he is about 6'6" and - even though he's not a runner - he got tired of trying to take tiny steps to stay in pace with the likes of me, and finished 23 seconds ahead of the rest of us.

 So here's how we did:

Screenshot of RaceMenu results. See Kelley, my running buddy who sprinted to beat me by 12 seconds? And Rachel and Henry, who came in 6 and 3 seconds ahead of me (grrr). And Leah, who rounded out our group 27 seconds later.

27 minutes even! I feel like I should get a prize for finishing on a nice, round number. Also, I beat my goal of 30 minutes by a full three minutes, or almost a minute per mile, while only feeling like throwing up for a minute at the end. (I didn't, of course. Within three minutes, I was chowing down on watermelon and frozen yogurt. That's what I hate about running: you feel like you're going to die, then one minute later, you're perfect again and wonder if actually you could've run faster.) I attribute my success to the cool weather.

After.

Lastly, for an interesting comparison, here are my results from the only other 5k I ever did, in 2002. This was the Memorial Day Run in U. City. I was about to finish my freshman year and would have been in the middle of soccer season--therefore, at the peak of fitness. And as you can see, I only eked out a 28:01 finish, or just over a nine-minute mile.

Screenshot of results for 2002 5k U City Public Library Memorial Day Run.

So, I had a great time! That is both awesome and unfortunate, because I've always prided myself on not spending money on races when I could just run 3.1 miles myself for free. But I really loved this race. Maybe there will have to be more in my future. :)

Anyone want to move to Boston to be my running buddy?