22nd Annual Deary Memorial 5 Mile Road Race

Yesterday morning I ran a five mile race in my home town of Putnam CT.  The weather was pretty nice for a race, maybe a little warm for my liking.  I think it was about 73 degrees at 9am when the race was scheduled to start.  The race started and ended at a pub in town called J.D Coopers.  Parking was quite a challenge as the turn out for the festivities was large.  Once I parked I headed to the check in table.  They were also having a walk, a 15 mile bike ride and a 30 mile bike ride at the same time.  I think there was also a 1 mile kid's race the same day.  I have to say they were pretty organized for having so much going on at the same time.  The walkers started at 8am.  The 15 mile bikers started at 8:30am and the 30 mile bikers started at 8:45am.  Then us runners started around 9:05am. 

When I signed up for the race it stated that it was chip timed.  When I got my race bib there was no chip.  There was a tab on the bottom that said not to remove until the end of the race. Eh, another manually timed race.  My race last week was the same deal.  I kind of like the races that use chips.  I like to know what my split times are. 

I lined up in the back when it was time.  I know that I am not a fast runner and I don't want to get trampled.  They sang the national anthem and then used a starting pistol to get us all off.  I haven't been to a single race yet that actually used a starting pistol.  Granted, this is my first year doing any races and I have only done five so far. 

I knew as soon as we started going that this was not going to be a great race for me.  I was not feeling great from the get go.  I was already tired and kinda winded.  It was then that I realized I forgot to take my Allegra this morning and I have already seen that the rag weed is out.  Damn.  I had hoped that since I run part of this course 4 times a week that this would be a breeze.

I got to mile one with no walking.  Yay for me.  I did walk through the water stop.  I am not able to drink while jogging.  It just gets all over me and makes me gag.  This is about when my Nike + sensor died.  I like to track my miles.  Now I would not be able to.  Right after mile two was a hill in the center of town.  Never had it looked so steep to me as when I needed to run up it.  I had to walk right after the hill to catch my breath.  This is when one of the gentleman who was directing traffic for us runners shouted "Oh come on, you can go faster than that.  You aren't even running."  Seriously, that is not very encouraging.  I shouted back "I have asthma and I need to catch my breath."  He appoligized and came and patted me on the back. Yuck, I was super sweaty. 

On to mile three, I started my run, walk, run to get through the rest of this race.  I was feeling kind of miserable.  I have to run right by my house and I was thinking how easy it would be to just quite and get a nice cold drink and shower.  I toughed it out.  My mother-in-law is here from Ohio this weekend and she was waiting to see me run by.  I felt a little better after having some words of encouragement from her.  Only 1.5 miles to go.  I do this part of the run almost every day.  I tried to remember the Runner's World article on mantras but all I could think of was the shower and cup of coffee that were waiting for me at home. 

At mile four, there was a 20 something year old kid laying on the side of the road with two cops with him.  He looked to be having some sort of heat emergency.  I guess I was better off then that guy.  The next several volunteers that I passed kept me going with hoots and encouraging words.  I know that I was one of the last runners to finish.  I sneaked a look behind me to see only three people.  When I finally got to the finish the anouncer acutally called out my number and name as I went over the finish line.  I handed my tab from my bib to a volunteer.  And they gave me a cup of water and a gatorade.  59 minutes was my unofficial finishing time.  So around a 12 minute mile. 

I really need to get cracking on training for my half in January.  I don't want to feel this miserable while running.

I did all this for a T-shirt.