my first 10K part II

the big day of the race is here. i haven’t run competitively since high school. i’m fifty years old. what am i doing? why? well i think it’s to prove something to myself and then to others . . . . i ain’t dead yet or something. so i’ll take you through the details of this experience and let you decide if it’s all worth it.
the big psyche started last night. i have been reading up on “what to do the day before your 10K and everyone said, eat lots of pasta, drink lots of liquids, get lots of sleep. so i made up a big pasta dinner, clobbered back two glasses of red wine to chase it down, drank a bottle of gatorade, and had a rotten sleep because my family came back from toronto around 12:30 in the morning and woke me up, and then my wife - who has a cold - hacked and snorked and shifted and shuffled so much that i couldn’t sleep and eventually settled for a sleeping bag on a couch. yay!! great preparation - everything’s going well so far! NOT!!
then i woke around seven this morning, had a cup of coffee and a granola bar and now i’m trying not to puke because of the bazillion and one butterflies slam dancing in my stomach. oh and the constant back and forth to the toilet deserves mentioning as well. anxiety is a great laxative.
so out of the blue, my wife decided that she would try this race as well so we went to the race together. there were thirty five men and women registered for the 10k race and the start area was packed with giggling and joking and you could feel a little tension in the air. however, all that evaporated with the “go” of the starter and there may have been a bang or a whistle, i can’t remember. i saw one guy go flying off at a crazy fast pace but my eyes were on a friend of my wife and i (casey) - she was a bridesmaid at our wedding - and i knew she was a good runner so i kept her in my sights the whole race.
the course was a good mix of hill - uphill and downhill - and some flat sections but not enough to get really comfortable and establish a good stride. i settled into a rhythm after the first three k and passed a couple of young men who were struggling at that point. the first lap seemed to take forever because it was new to me and i had to check with the course volunteers who were stationed at every possible point where a person like myself might take a wrong turn. the second lap was smooth because i knew the route and could judge when to pick up energy and when to use it and also because i had my groove going until the last kilometre and a half which was all uphill and for which i had little left. i tried and tried to catch casey but she finished fifty something seconds ahead of me.
so how’d i do? well i ran a 53 minute 10 k which was slower than my goal but the course was harder than i anticipated. i finished fifth overall and the four in front of me were in their mid twenties or younger including two eighteen year old boys. it was a beautiful course through the sir sandford fleming campus and the people both in the race and watching were very supportive. i’m satisfied with my run and have a goal now in terms of time and then also to ramp up my conditioning. the next few runs i have are 5k runs and so are much more manageable.
yayyyyyyy. now i am going to have a sunday afternoon nap.