Running With Jack

As the pastor went through the closing announcements and benediction I sat nervously at the edge of my seat ready to spring out the door. This had nothing to do with the church service, rather the fact that the start of the Stutensee 10K race was only 45 minutes away. As the pastor finished I bolted as graciously as possible down the aisle and out the door and speed-walked the short distance to my house.

I had everything laid out so did a quick change, bid my wife a hello/goodbye and jumped in the car and sped to the next town Blankenloch. With 20 minutes to go I managed to find a parking space as a church goer vacated the space. I did my warm-up run on the way to the sports hall to pick up my race number. I walked over towards the Start while pinning on my number, joining a few from my running club on the way.

We arrived at the starting line about 4-5 minutes before the start and stood shivering in the rain waiting for the start. My legs felt pretty good and although I hadn’t done any real speed workouts this year, I was hoping to at least break last year’s course PR of 47:45.

As the race began I surged ahead with the crowd, happy to be moving as it was a cool 5C/41F outside and I was already soaked from the rain. With only 360 runners the mass quickly dissipated and I fell into my groove. I pushed hard, stopping short of going anaerobic, the two kilometers were flat and I wanted to make some time. I passed the first kilometer marker in 4:30 (7:15/mile pace) and the second in 9:10 (4:40/K, 7:31/M). The third kilometer took a little longer as we had to run an underpass under the railroad. I managed to catch a few runners as we climbed back up from the underpass.

From here we ran along the railroad tracks to the shopping/industry center of town, the rain pelted us as we made our way over the open section of course. I was still averaging a 4:40/K (7:31/mile) pace as I passed the 4K marker. Shortly after this my shoe came untied and I had to stop and tie it. I tried to speed ahead to make up for last time, but wouldn’t you know it, the other shoe came untied. So again I stopped to tie my shoe, much to the amusement of a couple that had been following me and observing my troubles. Sometime during this episode I missed the 5K marker and worst of all fell off my pace.

The course crossed the local county highway, which was closed for the race, and dipped under and over a couple bridges. My attempt to get back up to speed were thwarted by the changing elevation. As the course straightened out again and we crossed the 6K marker I didn’t even bother to look my watch, I knew I had lost a lot of time.

A runner edged by me as we entered a wooded section and I stuck like glue as we headed over the forest paths. As we turned onto the asphalt bike path I continued to stalk the runner slowly closing the 7-8 strides between us. As we headed over another bridge I slowly edged by him and increased the gap as we came down the other side.

With around 2K to go I picked up the pace as best I could trying to catch the next runner in front of me. We headed over a dirt path between a couple open fields and I managed to catch the runner in front of me by barrelling through the mud puddles as she chose to go around them. I passed the 9K marker as I entered the town and went down the last underpass. I caught a couple more runners on the way back up.

I sped down the street seeking to close the distance to one of the members of my running club that I saw up ahead. I knew he had to big of a lead to catch, but as I beat him last year I didn’t want him to be too far ahead.

As I rounded the last corner it was about 400 meters to the finish line and there was only one runner within range about 20 paces ahead. I heard feet hitting the ground behind me and I knew someone was trying to catch me. I was already breathing heavy by this time, but somehow I found a new burst of speed and managed to not only prevent the runner(s) behind me from passing, but I also passed the runner in front of me the last couple meters of the race (sorry dude).

After catching my breath I chatted with a few from my running club, but soon the rain and the cold took their toll and we headed our separate ways.

I finished in 48:07, slower than last year, but faster than the year before. I was 120th out of 268 runners, not too bad. If I had double-knotted my shoes at the start of the race I would have easily set a course PR, oh well, next year ;-)