Yesterday marked day 100 of the second 100 day challenge. Since I didn’t take any time off after the first one, it also marked day 466 overall, without a day off. This second 100 day challenge started with a 5k on day one, and ended with an 8k on day 100. For the 5k, I had no real basis of comparison, since it was a new course, and I haven’t raced many short runs in a while. Nonetheless, I ran a competitive race, clocking in at 18:07, good enough for 2nd Place. For the 8k, I had last year’s race to measure myself against. First, the bad news. My official time of 39:22 was exactly eight minutes slower than last year’s result. I was never in consideration for a podium spot or age group prize anyway, considering that this is a big event (almost 4000 finishers), with some super-fast leaders (sub 25). Still, I knew that I was in good shape, and targeted running sub-30 minutes this time around.
I had the extra motivation of knowing that former college teammate Chris Farley (no relation to the late actor) was racing, and he told me two days earlier when I picked up my race packet that he was looking to run around 30 minutes as well. So what if we’re both years beyond our competitive college days (14 years in my case, 15 in his), Chris seemed to have peaked post-college, while I spiraled downward pretty much since high school. It would be nice to beat him anyway, kind of like I would have been excited to beat former Olympic gold medalist Joan Samuelson at last year’s Cherry Blossom 10 Miler (but she beat me by around 15 seconds. I swear, I didn’t know she was that close, or I might have kicked more, and probably still lost). Chris ran a 31:02, so on digital paper, it looks like he crushed me. My time mirrored another college teammate’s exactly, in that Marc Scott recorded the same 39:22. Weird, right?
So what happened? I’ll tell you, even though you didn’t actually ask. I did my usual race morning routine of parking in Virginia, running past Iwo Jima (and utliizing their lineless portapots), crossing Memorial Bridge, down the Mall, over to the starting area, where I would wait in line for the portapots again. Only this time, Marc happened to drive past me during my warmup, so I had the brilliant idea of tossing my bag to him, with the plan of meeting up again at the starting line. Inside the bag he took was my race shirt (with bib / chip attached), racing flats, and other less essential gear. As I noted above, with ~4000 people running, it was rather challenging finding anyone in particular at the mayhem ahead of go-time. No sign of Marc, no sign of my bag, and no time to come up with plan B. Instead, I doffed my warmups, and dumped them on the side of the start (inside a planter at an adjacent restaurant, hoping that they would still be there when I finished), and ran bandit, trusting my wristwatch to give me an unofficial time, instead of the chip. First mile passed by in 5:46, which was right on where I hoped to be. No marker at two miles, but I hit three at 17:18, which means I was still right on pace. If you’re doing the math, this would suggest that I crawled home in the last ~2 miles at over 11 minutes per mile. I will say that I fell off pace a bit in mile 4, but not that much! Four miles at 23:30, and a little kick in the homestretch, I crossed the line and stopped the watch at 29:18. I did allow a few people to pass me in the last two miles, which was disappointing. But otherwise, I was pretty pleased with the effort. I didn’t see Farley during the run, so I didn’t know if I had beaten him or not (until I checked the results this morning).
Afterwards, I found my bag at the baggage drop, and my warmups were right where I left them. Again, no sign of Marc. I hung around the finish area for a little while, drank some water, ate a bagel, talked to some other 100 day runners, then hit the road. When I got back to my car, I had a couple of missed calls from Marc. He had parked at his office, ran a mile plus to the start, before realizing that he forgot his number, so he had to triple his warmup, cutting it too close to the start time. Again, with the mass of humanity, no chance for us to find each other, so Marc carried my shirt with him during his run (thinking we might pull off the handoff at one of the course double-backs. Though Marc spotted me at one point going in the opposite direction, I was oblivious, and the exchange never happened. Marc’s unexpectedly long warmup hurt his starting position, and had him back in the 13 minute corral (whereas I was in the 6 minute crowd at the front). If I had received the shirt mid-run, I would have had a much better time, seeing as it took Marc over a minute to cross the start, whereas it only took me a second or two, so my chip time would have looked over a mintue faster (falsely). If I had not thrown Marc out of sync with bringing my bag to the start, he likely wouldn’t have forgotten his own number, would have had a better starting spot, and run a faster time as well.
Had I run legally (assuming my racing flats would not have made any difference), I would have placed 54th, instead of 568th. Oh well. I still beat Marc, who somehow placed 570th (my guess is that Marc threw my shirt around another guy’s neck, either to yank him back or to ride his back across the finish line. It should make for an interesting finish line photo if that is what happened). More importantly, I knocked two minutes off last year’s time, broke 30, beat Farley, and finished at 774 miles for the last 100 days. It should have been more, but I’ve had too many aches and pains to worry too much about it. Big run is next Saturday, when I make my return to the regular marathon distance at the DC Rock and Roll. Can I break three hours? It’ll need to be official, since I am hoping for a Boston qualifier.
Traipse Reports - Trips and Races 