freedom, four miles and misfourtunes

Coming off a full day of sun “bathing” (read: burning) and water-skiing the day before (on two skis, which is infinitely less cool than on one – I have Meghan to thank for showing us that), I kicked the 4th of July weekend off with a bang at the “Freedom Day 4-miler.” Shameless idiom aside, this was my first SARR-organized event. I had heard they were a professional bunch and often brought out a sizable crowd to their events, but this race was terrible. Allow me to elaborate.

I showed up early to avoid the parking fiasco that this race is famous for. Like, 2 hours early. Although I entered the park (Woodlawn Lake) and found a spot without a problem, I almost immediately began taking offense to the scene before me: countless broken bottles littering the streets, the ubiquitous used diaper, people passed out on mattresses outside their tents (camping in anticipation of the fireworks show later that night), wild dogs mingling with chained dogs, and men and women already three Bud Lights deep. You just know these witless fools are saying crap like, “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere!” under the assumption that this is sound logic. Cursed Margaritaville.

Perhaps it was too early, but the volunteers at the check-in were not very jazzed either. Behind glasses that were too small for her face, a portly lady dispassionately gave me a form to fill and said, “Now if you’re an XL or XXXL, you can have a shirt for this year’s race. If not, you’re going to have to deal with last year’s.” I wanted to ask what happened to XXL, but in the end I decided to deal.

Although I felt good on the warm-up jog, 50+ miles over 7 days coming back from injury left me apprehensive at best. I decided to I would go out at around 6:20 pace and see if I couldn’t get something rolling. I met up with Bob during the warm-up and went over strategies – he was looking to do the same.





I lined up next to the starting mat (chip-timed) at the front of the crowd. Since all the high school and collegiate runners were back for the summer, I knew I wasn’t going to finish in the top 10, but it didn’t matter. I’m ambitious. Sue me. After some attempts at jokes on the foghorn by the race director, the gun sounded. Bob and I got out quick and made the first turn at around 5:30. We then settled into 6:10s when some space opened up. The pace felt right and Bob acknowledged this. Slightly uphill, we continued at this speed until we were dealt a 180 degree cut-back. I hate these things, but at least it came early. Almost immediately after this, however, my legs started to grow tired. Wow. Way too early for that crap.

First mile was deece at a 6:18 pace, but I could tell I was starting to fade. Like I sort of assumed – but mostly ignored – my legs were dead from the high mileage week before. I shifted gears and told Bob I was dropping back. I wanted to maintain around 6:30 and see if I couldn’t recover; I did exactly that. 2nd mile – 6:31.

After looping the lake, we came upon the slower racers. Although I generally run faster when I have a crowd, these kids killed all my momentum. The next 1.5 miles was a mixture of dodging, swerving, wide-outs, dead stops and the occasional burst of speed. It was seriously f’ing with my mental state. I was pissed. I was tired. I questioned why I have such bad luck with race venues.

At the point I was about to decide to scrap my “soft goal” (i.e. if I’m a softie that day, this is my goal) of 25:30, a female runner passed me like I was stopped. I blurted, “good race!” And she followed with, “you too.” That was all I needed. I pulled in tight behind her not unlike a “playa at da club” and drafted. She was flying. I looked down at the watch to see a 5:xx pace flash back, but decided to ignore it.

After about .2 miles of this affair, I dropped her. I pushed it. I opened the stride and leaned forward. I was starting the kick around .7 miles out. I was catching back up to Bob and could see him flaring way out and running on the grass instead of pavement. I followed his lead and found a groove on the outside. I continued this for the remainder of the way and finished with a decent kick. Final mile 5:42 pace. A bit short, perhaps, but hilarious how much I had left.

I need to discover a way to maintain intensity throughout the race. Next, I need to find a race I can do this without worrying about stepping on dog/baby crap half-way through. It’s nice to run in a weak age group, though. I brought home some hardware even though I finished 34th overall.


I also got a free hot dog. In pure San Antonio fashion, however, the lady serving the dogs offered me 3 stating, "oh you definitely earned these today!" I kindly refused. My punishment was this picture. Trying to smile, trying to swallow...rich.


Results

2 comments:

Ryu's Blog said...
July 8, 2009 at 2:58 PM

Howdy !!!
Nice Pics!!!! That was an epic review!!
I uploaded our new run
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8598261

par said...
July 9, 2009 at 11:25 AM

Thanks for the link. A couple of those hills dropped our pace way back, but what a way to finish!

Post a Comment